Japanese core consumer price rises ground to a halt in January, matching a market forecast and reinforcing expectations that the Bank of Japan will tighten credit only slowly. A flurry of other economic data sent conflicting signals. Household spending unexpectedly rose, while workers' wages posted the steepest drop in more than 2-1/2 years.
The nation-wide core consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, was flat from a year earlier in January due to a subdued rise in prices of energy-related goods, government data showed on Friday.
The core CPI for the Tokyo area, which is announced a month before nation-wide figures, was also unchanged in February from a year ago, falling short of a consensus forecast for a 0.1 percent rise, according to a Reuters survey.
Separate government figures showed on Friday that Japan's unemployment rate stayed at 4.0 percent in January, better than a median consensus forecast of 4.1 percent. The jobless rate has stood at 4.0 percent since November, the lowest level in 8-1/2 years, following annual revisions to the data, the government said.
The jobs-to-applicants ratio for January came in at 1.06, meaning 106 jobs were available per 100 applicants, below 1.07 in December and against an economists' consensus forecast of 1.08. Overall, the data showed Japan's labour market to be in good shape, although it did not improve markedly in January, economists said.
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