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Japan's core inflation rate rose in June for the first time since March, lifting off what had been a four-year low on the back of higher oil prices.
The reading came in at 1.6%, precisely where economists polled by Reuters expected it to land. The tension in that data point is real: a reversal in a disinflationary trend, delivered without a single unit of surprise.
What the move signals The first rise since March matters because it breaks a sequence the market had grown comfortable with.
Core inflation had been drifting lower, settling at a four-year trough that suggested Japan's price pressures were finally easing. Oil ended that narrative, at least temporarily.
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