From the International Herald Tribune....
Inflation in Japan rose at the fastest pace in more than nine years in November while industrial production and household spending declined, signaling that rising oil costs may derail the economy's longest postwar expansion.
Core consumer prices, which exclude fresh food, climbed 0.4 percent from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said Friday. Factory output slid 1.6 percent from a month earlier. Households cut spending 0.6 percent, the first drop since July.
