"Producer prices have been rising at a much faster pace than consumer prices for some time, but now companies are passing these costs on to consumers," Damian Thong, who heads Japan equity research at Macquarie Group, told the BBC.Producer prices are a measure of inflation at a wholesale level, while consumer prices reflect how much is paid by households for goods and services.
Official data released on Friday showed inflation was at its highest since 1981, the ninth month in a row that it has been above the central bank's 2% target.As a result the world's third largest economy has bucked the trend of many other countries that have raised interest rates sharply over the last year.
On Wednesday the BOJ kept interest rates near zero, which pushed the yen down in value against other major currencies. Many experts had expected the central bank to start to phase out its economic stimulus programme in an attempt to curb rising prices. The latest official figures showed that inflation in the US stood at 6.5% in December, while it was 9.2% in the eurozone and 10.5% in the UK.Why are things so expensive? The BBC's Faisal Islam answers your inflation questions in 90 seconds
bloody Brexit
Must be because of Brexit!
Bloody Brexit.
Brexit for you.
A forty year high of FOUR PERCENT!
God Brexit got them as well!!!!!
Brexit and 13 years of Tory government