In fact, in contrast to the year-on-year rate of increase in the CPI for all items less fresh food that I mentioned earlier, that for all items less fresh food and energy has remained flat at a level around 0.5 percent since the beginning of this fiscal year.
In addition, signs of changes -- albeit slight -- seem to have appeared in view of the fact that price rises by firms are beginning to spread to a broader range of products, and given other data, such as the trimmed-mean CPI, which excludes extreme relative price changes.