Japan’s service prices jump as Covid pain eases

First gain: People walking past a recently opened ramen store in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture. Japan’s core consumer prices rose 0.1% in May from a year earlier, their first such gain in more than a year but due largely to a rebound in energy prices. — Bloomberg

TOKYO: Japan’s corporate services prices rose at the fastest annual pace in eight months in May, data showed yesterday, adding to growing signs the world’s No. 3 economy is gradually emerging from last year’s devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

While the gain was due largely to the base effect of last year’s slump, rising hotel and transportation fees showed a resumption of economic activity and rising raw material costs were keeping Japan from sliding back into sustained deflation.