Japan’s core consumer prices in 2014 registered 2.6 percent growth from a year before, the second straight year-on-year gain and the highest increase since 1991 near the end of the bubble economy, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said Friday. Last year’s growth in the core consumer price index, which excludes the often erratic fluctuations of fresh food prices, is in comparison to 100 for the base year of 2010. The 2.6 percent gain is the highest since 1991, when the CPI increased 2.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the ministry. It was also the first time in 16 years that the figure had risen two years in a row, which officials said is comparable to the price rises for three consecutive years from 1996 to 1998. The 2.6 percent rise can be attributed mainly to companies increasing prices in 2014 for their products and services due to a rise in demand thanks to a pickup in business activities, they said. Higher import prices due to the continued weakening of the yen also led businesses to push up their prices, the ministry officials said. The hike in the consumption tax rate to 8 percent in April last year was likewise significant, they said. The ministry said it believed the consumption tax hike accounted for 1.5 percentage points of the 2.6 percent CPI rise. Topping the list of 2014 price increases were heating and electricity bills, which grew 6.2 percent from the year before, reflecting higher fuel prices around last summer, the ministry said. The core CPI across the country for December, meanwhile, rose 2.5 percent from a year earlier to 103.2, not including fresh food prices. The monthly CPI has now increased for 19 straight months, but the growth rate saw a 0.2 point decline from the level logged in November 2014, the officials noted.

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