Japan Producer Prices Jump by Most Since 2014, Backing BOJ Hike

Japan’s corporate goods prices surged in April by the most in 12 years, in another sign of how the war in Iran is boosting inflationary pressures and supporting the case for the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates.

The measure of input prices for Japanese firms rose 2.3% from a month earlier and March’s increase was revised higher, the Bank of Japan reported Friday. That was a full point above the highest estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists and marked the biggest jump since April 2014, when the sales tax was raised for the first time in nearly two decades.