Tokyo, Sha'ban 3, 1439, Apr 19, 2018, SPA -- Consumer prices in Japan were up 0.9 per cent from a year earlier in March for the 15th consecutive month of increase amid higher energy prices, the government said lat Thursday. The cost of kerosene climbed 13.3 per cent and that of petrol rose 7.5 per cent, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The core consumer price index, excluding fresh food, stood at 100.6 against a base of 100 for 2015, the ministry said. The inflation rate in March was still far from a 2-per-cent goal set by the Bank of Japan five years ago, when it started a monetary easing campaign to overcome deflation that had plagued the world's third-largest economy for more than a decade. Earlier this month, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda started a fresh five-year term, vowing to continue its ultra-easing monetary policy. --SPA 03:49 LOCAL TIME 00:49 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w672926