TOKYO, Dec 28: Japan on Friday reported its fastest rise in core consumer prices in almost a decade as sky-rocketing energy costs help to lift Asia’s largest economy out of years of deflation.

Meanwhile, the jobless rate fell unexpectedly as household spending and industrial output dropped, according to a raft of data for November that painted a mixed picture of the health of the Japanese economy.

Core consumer prices climbed 0.4 per cent in November from a year earlier, extending a rebound that began in October, when prices snapped an eight-month losing streak. Market forecasts had been for a gain of 0.3 per cent.

Higher energy and food prices were largely behind the rise, offsetting continued declines in the prices of digital electronic products.

Japan’s unemployment rate meanwhile dropped to 3.8 per cent in November from 4.0 per cent the previous month, beating market expectations for no change.

The unemployment total declined by 130,000 from a year earlier to 2.46 million in November, the 24th consecutive monthly fall, the government said.

The unemployment rate is now just above a trough of 3.6 per cent seen in July, which was the lowest rate since February 1998.

Despite the drop in unemployment, there were only 99 jobs available for every 100 job seekers, down from 102 in October and 105 in September, according to a separate report from the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry.

It was the first time in two years that there were less available jobs than job seekers.

Japan’s economy is gradually recovering from a slump stretching back more than a decade, but growth this year has fallen short of expectations amid a shaky global economy and a slump in the domestic housing market.

Small firms in particular are struggling at the moment in Japan against a backdrop of soaring oil prices and higher borrowing costs.

The government also reported that Japan’s industrial output fell by 1.6 per cent in November from the previous month.

It was the first drop in two months, coming after a rise of 1.7 per cent in October, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Even so the government maintained its overall assessment that industrial production “is on a moderately upward trend.” The ministry predicted that industrial output will rise by 4.0 per cent in December from a month earlier, but stay flat in January.—AFP