Japanese wholesale prices in October dropped 6.7 percent from a year earlier for the 10th consecutive month of decline, reflecting falling energy and commodity prices as well as sluggish consumer demand, the Bank of Japan said Thursday.

The prices, gauged by the central bank's corporate goods price index, stood at 102.2 against the 2005 base of 100, the BOJ said in a preliminary report.

The pace of the decline slowed compared with a revised 8.0 percent drop in September and a record 8.5 percent fall in August.

On a month-on-month basis, prices fell 0.7 percent from September for the first decline in four months.

Economists polled by Kyodo News had projected a 6.0 percent yearly fall and 0.1 percent monthly decline.

A BOJ official said a slowdown in the growth of demand from Asian countries, especially China, put pressure on Japan's wholesale prices while a plunge in crude oil prices from their historic high levels a year earlier continued to drag down wholesale prices sharply.

"Domestic demand remained stagnant. Although the economy is moving toward picking up, sufficient demand has yet to emerge," the official added in explaining factors contributing to the price declines of steel, industrial and agriculture-related products.

Compared with a year earlier, petroleum and coal prices fell 26.6 percent, steel prices 20.3 percent and chemical products 9.2 percent.

Electrical machinery prices fell 3.4 percent and agriculture-related products 2.3 percent.

Import prices fell 17.3 percent in terms of contract currencies for the 11th consecutive month of decline, and slipped 23.4 percent year- on-year in yen terms.

Export prices fell 2.2 percent on a contract currency basis for the 12th straight month of decline, and lost 7.7 percent in yen terms.