Tokyo's core consumer price index, which excludes fresh food, rose 1.9 percent in July from a year earlier, beating analyst forecasts of 1.7 percent and accelerating from 1.6 percent in June. The figure remained below the Bank of Japan's 2 percent target for a sixth straight month, driven mainly by higher food and daily necessities prices due to Middle East conflicts, increasing the likelihood that the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates again. Services inflation held steady at 1.1 percent, while the inflation index excluding both fresh food and energy, which the Bank of Japan watches closely, edged up to 2.0 percent from 1.9 percent in June. Most analysts expect the Bank of Japan to keep rates unchanged at today's meeting, after just raising them to 1 percent, the highest in 31 years, in June amid mounting inflationary pressures from the Middle East war and a weak yen.