TOKYO, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Japan's wholesale prices fell 0.9 percent in July from a year earlier owing to demand being hit by the global pandemic, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) said in a report Thursday.
According to the BOJ, the price of goods traded between companies fell for a fifth straight month although a rise in cruse oil prices slowed the decline from June's 1.6 percent drop.
Japan's central bank also said that prices for oil and coal products declined 19.3 percent from the previous year, while those for chemical products fell 5.0 percent.
Scrap and waste prices, meanwhile, retreated 8.0 percent amid waning demand, the BOJ said.
As China's economic activity rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, the BOJ said rising prices for commodities drove those for nonferrous metal products 2.7 percent higher, while those for metal products climbed 2.4 percent in the recording period.
When excluding the impact of a consumption tax hike to 10 percent from 8 percent on Oct. 1 last year, the BOJ said wholesale prices dropped 2.4 percent in the recording period, with the pace slowing from a 3.1 percent retreat logged a month earlier.
"A pickup in crude oil prices somewhat underpinned overall wholesale prices, but the virus pandemic continues to weigh on domestic demand," a BOJ official was quoted as saying.
In yen terms, meanwhile, import prices decreased 12.6 percent, while export prices fell 3.2 percent from a year earlier, the central bank's figures also showed. Enditem
