Japan’s corporate service inflation steady in February

Japan's annual business-to-business service inflation held steady at 2.1% in February, suggesting companies continued to pass on rising labour costs thanks to prospects for sustained wage gains. The year-on-year rise in the services producer price index, which measures what companies charge each other for services, was unchanged from January, Bank of Japan (BOJ) data showed on Tuesday. The data underscores the BOJ's view that rising service prices will start to replace cost-push inflation as a key driver of price gains, and help sustain inflation around its 2% target.