By Leika Kihara
TOKYO, April 20 (Reuters) – Most Japanese households expect prices to continue rising in coming years, a quarterly survey showed on Monday, keeping pressure on the central bank to proceed with further interest rate hikes.
The ratio of households who expect prices to rise a year from now stood at 83.7%, the Bank of Japan’s survey for March showed, compared with 86.0% three months ago.
The survey also showed 82.6% of households expect prices to rise five years from now, compared with 83.0% in the previous survey, the Bank of Japan said.
On average, households expect prices to rise 10.3% five years from now, the highest level since the BOJ began taking relevant data in 2006, the survey showed.
The survey, taken from February 4 through March 9, likely did not incorporate much of the impact of surging oil prices from the Middle East conflict that began with the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran on February 28.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara and Takahiko Wada; Editing by Tom Hogue and Christopher Cushing)
