Japan Producer Prices

Producer prices in Japan rose by 5.6% yoy in July 2021, beating market consensus and June's figure of a 5% gain. This was the fifth straight month of producer price inflation and the highest reading since September 2008, amid surging commodity prices. Cost increased further for beverages & foods (2% vs 1.8% in June), chemicals (10.9% vs 10.1%), petroleum & coal products (38.8% vs 42%), iron & steel (11.8% vs 9.6%), metal products (1% vs 0.2%), non-ferrous metals (32.3% vs 37.6%), production machinery (0.7% vs 0.2%), other manufacturing industry products (0.3% vs 0.3%) and electronic components (0.6% vs 0.3%). In addition, prices of transportation equipment was flat after falling 0.1% in June. At the same time, there were falls in cost of electrical machinery & equipment (-0.2% vs -0.7%), general machinery (-0.4% vs flat reading), and information (-1.6% vs -2.1%). On a monthly basis, producer prices went up 1.1%, after a 0.6% rise in June.