Japan’s inflation rate has jumped to a fresh 41-year high as businesses pass on higher costs to their customers. Core consumer prices for last month rose by 4% from a year earlier, double the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) target level. 

It puts further pressure on the central bank to put up its interest rates to help ease the rising cost of living. This week the BOJ surprised investors by announcing that it would keep rates near zero, despite the increasing cost of everything from food to fuel. 

Official data showed inflation in Japan was at its highest since 1981, the ninth month in a row that it has been above the central bank's 2% target. However, even after the jump in prices, Japan still has one of the lowest inflation rates in the world. As a result the world’s third largest economy has bucked the trend of many other countries that have raised interest rates sharply over the last year. 

The latest official figures showed that inflation in the US stood at 6.5% in December, while it was 9.2% in the eurozone and 10.5% in the UK.