by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
The strategy: Let inflation rip to bring the horrible debt-to-GDP ratio down. Households & yield investors pay for it. Turns out, no free lunches after all.
The “all items” Consumer Price Index for Japan surged by 4.02% in January year-over-year, the worst inflation rate since January 2023, and beyond that one month, the worst rate since 1981 (red in the chart).
The all-items CPI minus “imputed rent” – a calculated figure derived from other indicators – spiked to 4.6%, according to Statistics Japan on Friday (blue).