Consumer prices in Japan climbed 3.4 percent in May from a year earlier, after a sales-tax hike in April, the government said Friday.
The figure represented the twelfth straight month of rise, dpa quoted the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications as saying. The core consumer price index, which excludes fresh food, stood at 103.4 against a base of 100 for 2010, the ministry said.
The government raised the sales tax to 8 per cent on April 1 from 5 per cent for the first hike in 17 years.