TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s inflation-adjusted real wages fell for the fourth straight month in November weighed down by higher prices even as base pay grew at the fastest pace in more than three decades, government data showed on Thursday.
The Bank of Japan considers various risks in deciding the timing for raising interest rates and the central bank has repeatedly said sustained, broad-based wage hikes are a prerequisite for pushing up borrowing costs.
Inflation-adjusted real wages, a barometer of consumer purchasing power, slipped 0.3% in November from a year earlier, falling for the fourth straight month, data from the labour ministry showed. It revised October’s unchanged reading to a 0.4% decline.
The consumer inflation rate that the government uses to calculate real wages and includes fresh food prices but not rent or equivalent, rose 3.4% from a year earlier, accelerating from a 2.6% growth in October, reflecting higher…
