Over 20,000 Japanese food items face price hikes this year: report
TOKYO, March 31– Soaring prices in Japan are expected to affect over 20,000 food items in 2023, a research report said Friday. Price rises for 18,544 food items have already been planned for 2023, increasing the likelihood that the total will once again top 20,000, according to the survey by research firm Teikoku Databank. Japan’s core consumer prices rose 4.2…
TOKYO, March 31 (Xinhua) — Soaring prices in Japan are expected to affect over 20,000 food items in 2023, a research report said Friday.
Price rises for 18,544 food items have already been planned for 2023, increasing the likelihood that the total will once again top 20,000, according to the survey by research firm Teikoku Databank.
According to the firm, price increases were made last year for a total of 25,768 food items.
Based on a poll of 195 large food manufacturers, price hikes are anticipated for 5,106 products in April, said the report.
This has represented the third-highest monthly total since January of last year and a roughly 4.2-fold increase from the previous year, the report showed.
Particularly, the cost of dairy-based goods and beverages is rising.
In February, price hikes for more than 5,000 food items occurred as well, surpassing the record number of increases seen in 2017, it added.
Japan’s core consumer prices rose 4.2 percent in January from a year earlier, increasing at a pace not seen since September 1981, official data showed.
Food prices rose 7.4 percent in January as companies continued to pass on the higher prices they are incurring to the consumers and in doing so negatively impacting household spending.
The research team estimated that an average household will have to pay an extra 2,140 yen (about 16 U.S. dollars) per month for food, adding that the country’s recent measures can hardly ease such extra burdens. Enditem