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By Kantaro Komiya<\/p>\n
TOKYO (Reuters) – Consumer inflation in Tokyo for October likely undershot the central bank’s price target for the first time in five months, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.<\/p>\n
The core consumer price index (CPI) in Tokyo, a leading indicator of nationwide price trends, was expected to have risen 1.7% from a year earlier, the median forecast of 18 economists showed.<\/p>\n
That would follow a 2.0% rise in September and mark the first time the data misses the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) 2% target since May’s 1.9% growth.<\/p>\n
“The momentum of food price hikes is weakening, and the recovery pace of consumer spending remains sluggish despite considerable wage growth”, said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.<\/p>\n
Japan’s nationwide core CPI, which excludes fresh food but includes energy items, slowed to a 2.4% rise in September, data showed earlier on Friday.<\/p>\n
The government will release October Tokyo CPI data on Oct. 25 at 8:30 a.m. Japan time (Oct. 24 at 2330 GMT), which will be the latest price data for the BOJ when it drafts quarterly economic forecasts at its Oct. 30-31 policy meeting.<\/p>\n
The BOJ is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at its October meeting, according to a Reuters poll. A slim majority of economists expected the BOJ to stick to the current 0.25% rate through end-December, and nearly 90% of economists anticipate a hike to 0.5% by end-March.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n