The year-onyear rate of change in the consumer price index (CPI) in Japan rose to 2.4 percent in the summer of 2008, but it became negative from the spring of 2009, and registered the largestever decline of minus 2.4 percent in August 2009.
The year-on-year rate of decline in the CPI somewhat moderated to minus 2.2 percent in October, and it is expected that the pace of decline is likely to moderate to approximately minus one percent toward the beginning of next year, as the effects of the previous year’s surge in the crude oil prices abate. The question is beyond that point.