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Japan inflation slows for sixth straight month in January

An elderly man checks apples at a food supermarket in Tokyo on December 8, 2014

Japanese inflation slowed for a sixth straight month in January as fuel costs fell, government data showed Friday despite the Bank of Japan's massive monetary easing to stoke growth. Core consumer inflation, excluding volatile fresh food prices, came in at 2.2 percent year-on-year, down from 2.5 percent in December, with the rise in overall consumer prices standing at 2.4 percent, the internal affairs ministry said. Prices climbed from year-earlier levels largely because the government raised sales tax from 5.0 percent to 8.0 percent on April 1 last year, which drove up retail prices. Adjusted for the tax increase, the core consumer-price index rose a marginal 0.2 percent from a year earlier in January, after growing 0.5 percent in December, far short of the Bank of Japan's goal of 2.0 percent inflation. Inflation is a key measure for Tokyo's bid to end years of stagnant or falling prices that have been blamed for holding back growth and denting firms' expansion plans. Prices had been on the rise, largely due to Japan's heavy energy bills after the 2011 Fukushima crisis forced the shutdown of the country's nuclear reactors, but oil prices have tumbled in recent months and consumers snapped their wallets shut after the tax rise.