June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s consumer prices fell at a record pace in May, adding to the risk that deflation will become entrenched and hamper a rebound from the nation’s worst postwar recession.

Prices excluding fresh food slid 1.1 percent from a year earlier after dropping 0.1 percent in the preceding two months, the statistics bureau said today in Tokyo. It was the sharpest decrease since comparable figures were first compiled in 1971.

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said last week that price declines will accelerate through the middle of the fiscal year as demand slackens and crude oil continues to trade lower than last year’s record. Retailers including Aeon Co. are cutting prices to attract customers as falling wages and the worsening job outlook damp spending.

“Profits fall, then wages come down, then consumers stop shopping,” said Junko Nishioka, chief Japan economist at RBS Securities Japan Ltd. in Tokyo. “And because people aren’t shopping, companies lower prices. That’s the process that we’re starting to see. It isn’t easy to break out of.”

The yield on Japan’s 20-year bonds fell half a basis point to 2.08 percent at the 11:05 a.m. break in Tokyo. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.2 percent. The decline in prices matched the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Worldwide inflation is easing as energy costs retreat and the worst global recession since the Great Depression forces companies to charge less. Consumer prices failed to rise in the euro area for the first time in at least a decade in May, and in the U.S. they fell 1.3 percent, the most since 1950.

Hard Sell

“With demand deteriorating, companies are finding it more difficult to sell goods and services and are turning to discounting,” said Azusa Kato, an economist at BNP Paribas in Tokyo.

Some 47 percent of 775 Japanese retailers surveyed by the Nikkei newspaper plan to lower prices in the year ending March 2010 to spur sales, up from 9 percent a year earlier. Aeon, Japan’s second-largest retailer, this week started a discount campaign for confectionary, drinks and mayonnaise.

Consumers, whose spending accounts for more than half of the economy, may delay purchases if they expect goods to get cheaper. That would erode profits and force companies to cut wages, which have already slid for 11 months. Japan only escaped from a decade of deflation in 2005.

Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said an “extreme” slump in demand and production are causing the drop. “We continue to monitor developments in prices and need to carefully manage the economy to avoid a deflationary spiral,” he said.

Jun Saito, chief economist at the Cabinet Office, said in an interview that price declines “will exert a significant amount of downward pressure on the recovery.”

OECD’s Advice

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development this week urged the Bank of Japan to keep pumping cash into the economy “until underlying inflation is firmly positive.” Since it cut the key interest rate to 0.1 percent in December, the central bank has been buying corporate debt and increased government bond purchases from lenders to revive growth.

Central bank board member Hidetoshi Kamezaki said this month that receding expectations of price increases “could lead to a deflationary spiral, which is very dangerous.” Some 22 percent of consumers anticipate prices will be lower a year from now, the most since the government began asking the question in 2004.

“The Bank of Japan is clearly worried about the risk of deflation, not inflation, and an exit from its low-rate policy is still far away,” said Hiroaki Muto, a senior economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co. in Tokyo.

Tokyo Prices

Even when excluding food and energy, consumer prices fell 0.5 percent in May, the fastest pace in 22 months, the statistics bureau said. Core prices in Tokyo, a harbinger of nationwide price trends, fell 0.7 percent in June from a year earlier, the biggest drop in six years.

“The economy’s deterioration will exacerbate downward pressure on prices,” said Yoshiki Shinke, a senior economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo. “Core price declines will probably exceed 2 percent in the July-September quarter.”

Core prices, the central bank’s key gauge of inflation, will slide 1.5 percent this fiscal year and 1 percent in the next, Governor Shirakawa and his board forecast in April.

Crude oil has lost about half of its value since peaking at $147.27 a barrel in July. Wheat, soybeans and corn costs have dropped after climbing to records last year.

Wholesale prices fell at the fastest pace in 22 years in May and corporate-service prices slid a record 3 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mayumi Otsuma in Tokyo at motsuma@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 25, 2009 22:40 EDT