Recently, firms in industries such as food products and food services have been passing cost increases of raw materials on to their selling prices. In addition, some firms in the services industry have started trying to set their prices in accordance with demand while employing the method of dynamic pricing, through which higher prices are charged at a time of increased demand (Chart 8).
Meanwhile, firms' and households' inflation expectations have turned to a pick-up, more or less recovering to the pre-pandemic level. The rate of change in wages has increased gradually, mainly for industries with labor shortage. In the outlook, the year-on-year rate of change in the CPI is likely to increase moderately in positive territory for the time being, reflecting a rise in energy prices.