Tokyo, Jan 20 (IANS): Japan's core consumer prices gained 4.0 per cent in December from a year earlier, marking the highest level since 1981, owing to soaring prices for energy and food, the government said in a report on Friday.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, while also marking the largest growth in over 40 years, the core consumer price index, excluding volatile fresh food items, has stayed above the Bank of Japan's 2 percent inflation target for the seventh straight month, reports Xinhua news agency.

Higher prices for electricity and other energy costs, as well as food, saw the core CPI elevated, the statistics bureau said, with food prices climbing 7.4 per cent in December, while energy prices leaped 15.2 per cent.

Electricity soared 21.3 per cent in the recording month, while city gas leaped 33.3 per cent, the Ministry said.

Gasoline was up 1.6 per cent, while kerosene prices rose 4.7 per cent in the recording period, according to the Ministry.

Japan's core-core CPI, meanwhile, excluding both fresh food and energy prices, rose 3.0 per cent, the highest since 1991, the statistics bureau's data showed.

For 2022, core CPI rose 2.3 per cent from a year earlier, the data also showed, which when the effects of prior consumption tax hikes are taken away, marked the fastest pace since 1991, the Ministry added.