Land of the Falling Price: Japan

choi

Correction: On Nov 23, 2021 I published the posting whose title was "        预览Samsung Plans Texas Chip Plants." Two days ago I discover the mistake, and dropped the "s" in the Plants. Samsung is to build one plant in Taylor (a sleepy city of 100,000 49 miles away from Austin), Texas, with one in Austin already.

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Inflation | Land of the Falling Price; Japan bucks the global trend. Economist, Nov 20, 2021.
https://www.economist.com/financ ... cent-inflation-rate
("In September [2021] they [consumer prices, or CPI (whcih will be follow by a verb in singular form)] rose by just 0.2% year-on-year, and inflation, excluding fresh food and energy prices, actually fell by 0.5% in the same period.")

Note:
(a) Read paragraph 1 and view the graphic (the only in the article), both of which are accessible to a nonsubscriber, is enbough.
(b)
(i) In the US, consumer price index (CPI) is compiled by Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), US Department of Labor.
(ii) Consumer Price Index Frequently Asked Questions. BLS, undated.
https://www.bls.gov/cpi/questions-and-answers.htm

Read Q&A
1. What is the CPI?
9. Is the CPI a cost-of-living index?
15. Is the CPI the best measure of inflation?
16. Which index is the "official CPI" reported in the media?  (A: "The broadest and most comprehensive CPI is called the All Items Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the U.S. City Average * * * In addition to the all items index, BLS publishes thousands of other consumer price indexes, such as all items less food and energy. Some users of CPI data use this index because food and energy prices are relatively volatile, and they want to focus on what they perceive to be the 'core' or 'underlying' rate of inflation.")

The short answer is that CPI is the same as inflation or cost-of-living adjustment -- but for urban consumers only (excluding those living in countryside, because items in the basket are for consumption of urban dwellers.
(iii) Core CPI is also known as core inflation, whereas CPI-U as "headline inflation" in some reports of news media.  "Headline inflation may not present an accurate picture of an economy's inflationary trend since sector-specific inflationary spikes are unlikely to persist." en.wikipedia.org for "headline inflation."

(c) So core CPI in Japan is still falling (read: deflation), despite inflation fear in US has further sapped President Joe Biden's approval ratings.

The Biden administration on Nov 23, 2021 announced tapping into oil reserve. A day later, Japan did the same to its own oil reserve. I do not know why Japan wanted to do it, because the stated goal of Japan's central bank for decades has been fighting deflation, which has not been successful.