Consumer prices in Japan rises 0.8% in August

Japan's core consumer prices in August rose 0.8 % year-on-year, data showed Friday as the country makes progress in the fight to end years of deflation. The August increase, largely due to higher energy prices, was the third straight monthly gain and the highest jump since November 2008 when prices rose 1 %. The core consumer price index, which excludes fresh foods, was released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on its website. Prices rose 0.4 % in June and 0.7 % in July. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has put in place several stimulus measures to pull the economy from 15 years of chronic deflation or falling prices. The measures already have helped weaken the yen against major currencies, thus boosting critical Japanese exports. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has doubled its inflation target to 2 % to be achieved in the next two years, with plans to inject billions of yen into the economy. The BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who took office in March, vowed to pull the nation's economy out of 15 years of deflation. The bank decided to take aggressive monetary easing measures to achieve an inflation target of 2 % within about 2 years. In June, the index climbed 0.4 % in the first increase in 14 months. A weaker yen is a factor contributing to the higher energy prices as the depreciation of the currency drove up import costs.