Financial Associated Press, April 26 (Editor Ma Lan) some people are worried that the inflation rate is too highBestvideopokerSome people are worried that the inflation rate is too lowBestvideopokerThe joys and sorrows of this world can never be unified.

On Friday, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported the Tokyo Consumer Price Index, which is seen as a leading indicator of Japanese prices. According to the report, the overall consumer price index in Tokyo rose 1% year on year.Bestvideopoker.8%, the market is expected to remain unchanged from March, that is, at 2.Bestvideopoker.6%; the core consumer price index, excluding fresh food, rose 1.6%, down from 2.4% in March, and the market had expected 2.2%.

The consumer price index excluding food and energy slowed to 1.8 per cent in April, compared with a consensus forecast of 2.7 per cent.

Inflation indicators that fall far short of expectations could herald a bumpy road to normalisation, raising more doubts about whether the BoJ can continue to be hawkish and support the yen.

However, some analysts pointed out that the weakness of this indicator is related to the recent reduction in high school tuition fees in Tokyo, and the decline in education costs may be the reason for a significant slowdown in price increases in Tokyo, and it is an one-off factor, so the market does not need to worry too much.

Earlier this month, the Tokyo metropolitan government waived high school fees for children from families of all income groups and provided subsidies to students attending private high schools. According to the local Ministry of Education, the cost of public and private high schools has fallen sharply, reducing the total cost by about half a percentage point.

The yen may continue to be under pressure

Morgan Stanley-Mitsubishi UFJ Securities had estimated that the abolition of education costs would reduce core inflation by about 0.7 percentage points. Since the tuition fee cut applies only to Tokyo, it has a limited impact on inflation data across Japan.

As a result, April Tokyo consumer data are considered distorted and may not be enough to reflect the reality of Japanese inflation. Most analysts believe it is unlikely to change the Bank of Japan's policy view, but it does cause the Bank of Japan to become more cautious in raising interest rates in the short term.

At the same time, the market is also vaguely anxious, as the data released on Friday exceeded the market's bad plans. This heralds the uncertainty of inflation in Japan and may affect the Japanese government's determination to intervene in the foreign exchange market, thereby increasing downward pressure on the yen.

Affected by the weak inflation data, the yen exchange rate is under pressure today. As of press time, the dollar rose to 156.1240 against the yen, but overall, market sentiment remained robust.

Yuichi Kodama, an economist at the Meiji Yasuda Institute, a Japanese research company, pointed out that the impact of education subsidies is an one-off factor, but there are other signs of weakness in the data. Food inflation is falling and energy prices are not rising significantly, which means that the weak yen is not enough to have an impact on Japanese prices through imports.

But he added that real wages were likely to support consumption as disruption was removed from the inflation report. But inflation is now at odds with the BoJ's underlying target. The impact of a weak yen on prices must be more pronounced in order to push Japan to raise interest rates, and he believes the earliest rate hike may be in July.

At Friday's meeting, the BoJ may consider further raising its forecast for the main inflation indicator for the current fiscal year from 2.4%, according to people familiar with the matter. At the same time, the authorities will consider cutting back on government bond purchases to strengthen their hawkish stance.