Japan Corporate Goods Prices Down Record 6.6 Pct in June

Tokyo, July 10 (Jiji Press)--Japan's corporate goods prices in June dropped a record 6.6 pct from a year before due to sharp falls in prices of oil and other raw materials, the Bank of Japan said Friday.
The corporate goods price index, which covers products at
production and wholesale stages, stood at 102.6 against 100 for the base
year of 2005, the BOJ said in a preliminary report.
Month on month, the index dropped 0.3 pct, down for 10 months on
end, marking the longest losing streak since the 11-month downtrend from
March 2001 to January 2002 that followed the collapse of an information
technology bubble.
The year-on-year fall in June was exaggerated by the fact that
prices of crude oil and other raw materials posted steep rises last year, a
BOJ official said, suggesting that the downtrend will continue for the time
being.
Also behind the drop was weakening domestic demand amid the
economy's downturn.
Prices of petroleum and coal products tumbled 41.7 pct from a year
before, and nonferrous metal prices sank 29.1 pct. But month on month,
petroleum and coal prices were up 2.6 pct reflecting a recent upturn in
crude oil prices.
Steel prices were down 9.3 pct from a year earlier in the face of
slumping construction demand.