Inflation in Japan dropped to a 14-month low in November, in what policy makers hope will be a temporary lull caused by the recent sharp drop in the oil price.

Fading inflation has come as some relief to consumers, who had faced an extra squeeze on household finances caused by April’s rise in consumption tax, the first in 17 years. But the latest fall in the core consumer price index — to 0.7 per cent in November, excluding taxes, from 0.9 per cent in October — will cause some concern at the central bank, which has staked its credibility on hitting a 2 per cent rate of inflation within about two years of a radical monetary easing programme that began in April 2013.

When Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda expanded that programme two months ago, he said it was with one eye on the falling oil price, which was threatening Japan’s exit from the “deflationary mindset” that had taken root in the late 1990s. The BoJ still expects to hit its 2 per cent target some time towards the end of the fiscal year beginning next April but to get there it is depending on more aggressive price and wage-setting behaviour from the private sector.