II. Price developments in Japan  Let me now turn to the price developments in Japan. The year-on-year rate of change in the consumer price index (CPI, all items excluding fresh food) turned positive in June 2013 for the first time in 14 months and has recently been accelerating to the range of 0.5–1.0 percent.
While it is true that a rise in the prices of energy-related goods such as petroleum products and electricity has contributed to lifting the index, there has been an improvement in a wide range of items as the economy continues to recover moderately, as seen in resilient private consumption.