By KEIICHI KITAGAWA/ Staff Writer
January 10, 2023 at 16:13 JST
A store in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward on Nov. 15 sells cartons of milk at the higher price introduced two weeks earlier. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
The consumer price index in Tokyo’s 23 wards hit 103.9 in December, up 4.0 percent year-on-year, the highest rise in more than 40 years, the internal affairs ministry announced on Jan. 10.
It marked the 16th consecutive month of the CPI's rise and the first time since April 1982 that the increase reached the 4-percent mark. The index excludes perishables.
Surging crude oil and natural resource prices have accelerated the rise in food prices, in addition to prices for fuel and energy such as electricity.
Food prices, excluding perishables, rose 7.5 percent in the 23 wards in December year-on-year.
The average CPI for 2022 was 101.9 in the 23 wards, up 2.2 percent from the previous year.
That marked the first rise in three years and the biggest increase since 2014, the year the government raised the consumption tax rate.
If the impacts of the consumption tax hike are excluded, it was the largest increase since 1992.
Experts regard the CPI in the 23 wards as an advance indicator of the nationwide index.
Therefore, they believe the nationwide CPI, to be announced on Jan. 20, is likely to increase as much as it did in the 23 wards or more.
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