TOKYO: Japan's core consumer prices fell for the ninth straight month in April as a record slump in cellphone fees offset rising energy prices, suggesting that weak demand and higher costs will weigh on a fragile economic recovery.

Separate data showed firms facing rising input costs and a slower expansion in factory activity in May, highlighting risks to an economy heavily reliant on the manufacturing sector.

The data underscores the challenge policymakers face in combating a resurgence in COVID-19 infections without hobbling an economy already lagging other major trading partners emerging from the pandemic-induced slump.

The core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes the effect of volatile fresh food costs, fell 0.1% in April from a year earlier, smaller than a median market forecast for a 0.2% drop, government data showed on Friday and in line with March's decline.