People wearing face masks to protect against COVID-19 walk past a crossing in Shinjuku, an entertainment district of Tokyo, on Sept. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's core consumer prices were flat in August from a year earlier with a record drop in mobile phone charges offset by sharply higher accommodation fees and surging energy prices as the economy gradually recovers from the pandemic, government data showed Friday.

       The latest consumer price index, coming after 12 months of decline, does not change expectations that the Bank of Japan will maintain its monetary easing as its 2 percent inflation target is still far off.

       Despite its peers in the United States and Europe preparing to gradually wind down stimulus amid the prospect of accelerating inflation, the BOJ does not see a similar urgent need even though higher energy costs have lifted Japan's core CPI.

       Tracking higher crude oil prices, energy prices gained 5.5 percent from a year earlier with those of kerosene surging 20.0 percent and gasoline jumping 16.9 percent, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

       Accommodation fees were another positive contributor, up 46.6 percent, the sharpest increase on record, the ministry said.

       The sharp gain came in response to a plunge in fees charged by hotel operators under the government's "Go To Travel" subsidy program to spur local tourism that began in late July last year. The program was suspended nationwide in late December amid the spread of the coronavirus.

       A big drag was mobile phone fees, which tumbled 44.8 percent, the largest-ever drop, with the negative impact expected to continue as major carriers started offering cheaper plans this spring under government pressure.

       "Absent the impact of mobile communications fees, the 'Go To' program, and energy prices, the price trend should be positive, rather than negative," a ministry official said.

       The BOJ expects the core CPI to gain 0.6 percent in the current fiscal year through March.

       Toru Suehiro, a senior economist at Daiwa Securities Co., said further rises in the core CPI may be limited given that the pace of gains in energy prices has been slowing.

       "We need to see whether prices will go up in the service sector helped by pent-up demand," Suehiro said, referring to an expected recovery in demand suppressed by the pandemic.

       "There is also a possibility that firms (in the service sector) will compete to capture such demand by cutting prices," Suehiro added.

       Robust exports helped manufacturers that have played a key role in Japan's economic recovery from the pandemic fallout. But service providers have lagged amid the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant that has led COVID-19 restrictions to remain.

       So-called core-core consumer prices, excluding fresh food and energy items, fell 0.5 percent, down for the fifth straight month.

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