The number of food and beverage price hikes in Japan is set to drop by nearly 60% from a year earlier in February, a private research firm’s survey showed Friday, in a sign that inflation might be slowing down.
The country’s 195 major food and beverage makers are scheduled to raise prices on 674 items in February, down 59.3% from over 1,600 hikes in the same month last year that were chiefly for processed foods, Teikoku Databank said. This would mark a second month in a row of such a decline, it said.
According to the survey, 298 alcoholic beverages and soft drinks, including cooking sake and fresh juice, will lead the planned price increases, followed by 283 processed foods.
Kagome will raise the shipping prices of its Yasai Seikatsu 100 vegetable juice and 103 other beverages by up to 19.1% while Toyo Suisan Kaisha will push up the suggested retail prices of 41 items in its Maruchan cooked rice series by 12%-16%.
“Overall, food and beverage price increases have come to a halt,” a Teikoku Databank official said. But at the same time, the official warned, “The weak yen could pose an inflation risk in and after May.”