Japan’s inflation picks up, backing BOJ’s case for rate hike

Japan’s key price gauge accelerated for a second month in July, keeping the Bank of Japan on track for another near-term interest rate hike as market speculation builds over a move as soon as September. The consumer price index excluding fresh food rose 1.8% last month from a year earlier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Friday, picking up from a 1.6% advance in the previous month. The reading, the fastest since January, matched the median economist estimate.

The index that strips out both fresh food and energy, a measure closely watched by the BOJ as a gauge of underlying inflation, advanced 1.9%. The overall CPI also rose 1.9%.