Japan inflation rate unchanged at 3.3 %

Japan’s consumer prices climbed 3.3 per cent in July from a year earlier, the same rate as the previous month, the government said Friday.
Discounting the effect of a sales tax increase in April, the inflation rate would be 1.3 per cent, the Bank of Japan said, still below its 2-per-cent target.
It was the 14th straight month of year-on-year inflation, in a country which had previously seen over a decade of deflation, dpa reported.
The core consumer price index, a key measure of inflation which excludes fresh food, stood at 103.5 against a base of 100 for 2010, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
National sales tax was raised from 5 per cent to 8 per cent in April, the first increase in 17 years.
Japan’s central bank is aiming to lift the inflation rate to 2 per cent in or around fiscal 2015.