BUSINESS BRIEFING / ECONOMY

Japan’s consumer prices fell at a record pace in August, heightening the risk that prolonged deflation may hamper the country’s recovery from its deepest postwar recession.

Prices excluding fresh food slid 2.4% from a year earlier, the most since the price survey began in 1971, the government said Tuesday.

Firms are cutting prices to attract consumers facing record unemployment and sinking wages. A return to the deflation that Japan just shook off in 2005 may weigh on economic growth as people and companies delay spending, expecting prices will keep falling.