Japan’s PPI was unchanged on a monthly basis and up 4.0% YoY in February, in line with expectations of a 4.0% YoY increase and slower than 4.2% YoY in January.

• On a contract currency basis, export prices were up 0.5% MoM and 1.2% YoY and import prices were up 0.5% MoM but down -1.6% YoY.
• For PPI, a negative contribution from electricity and gas (-0.24 ppts) offset positive contributions from agriculture products (+0.10 ppts), food products (+0.05 ppts), and petroleum & coal products (+0.05 ppts).
• Nonferrous metals product prices continued to see one of the highest yearly increases at 13.6% YoY.
• Agricultural product prices have surged 39.4% YoY