Japan's producer price index rose 0.1 percent in July, and the summer electricity surcharge was all of it

Read the second line of the release, not the first.

The Bank of Japan reported on Thursday morning in Tokyo that its producer price index rose 0.1 percent in July from June. The next bullet on the same page says the index excluding extra charges for summer electricity was unchanged. Those two sentences describe the same month.

Japanese utilities apply an extra charge to electricity from July to September, and the Bank publishes a companion index that adjusts for it. Electric power, gas and water contributed 0.23 percentage points to the month's move, more than the 0.1 percent the whole index recorded, and that group's own index rose 3.7 percent. Everything else, taken together, pulled the other way.

Two lines did most of the pulling. Petroleum and coal products fell 2.7 percent on the month, taking 0.20 points off, with naphtha, jet fuel and gas oil named. Chemicals fell 2.2 percent, taking off another 0.18, with ethylene, propylene and xylene named.

The yearly rate barely moved

On the year the index stands 7.2 percent higher, against a revised 7.3 percent for June. The index itself reads 135.8 on a base of 100 in 2020.

Underneath it, one group is doing something the headline hides. Nonferrous metals rose 1.4 percent on the month and 40.6 percent on the year, and the group index reads 256.1, which is two and a half times its 2020 level. Scrap and waste sits 29.1 percent above a year ago despite falling 3.6 percent in the month.

Trade prices split

On a contract currency basis, export prices fell 0.6 percent in the month and import prices rose 0.3 percent. Measured in yen the same two lines read plus 0.1 percent and plus 1.3 percent. The gap is the currency, and the Bank's note says a positive reading on its foreign exchange line is a move away from appreciation. That line reads 1.1 percent for July.

Over a year the divergence is wider still. Import prices are up 29.1 percent in yen and 17.7 percent in contract currency. The single largest contributor to the monthly rise in imports was electric and electronic products, at 0.63 points, led by MOS memory integrated circuits.

These are preliminary figures and the Bank labels them as such.