Friday May 1, 12:47 AM
Japanese consumer prices suffer first fall in 18 months
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's core consumer prices fell 0.1 percent in March from a year earlier, the first such decline in 18 months, as deflation returns to haunt Asia's biggest economy, government data showed on Friday.
Japan was stuck in a deflationary spiral for years after its economic bubble burst in the early 1990s, eroding corporate earnings and encouraging consumers to delay their spending in the hope that prices would fall further.
The return to deflation comes against a backdrop of falling energy costs and weak domestic demand amid the country's worst recession in decades.
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