Japan’s key inflation gauge accelerated in August for a fourth consecutive month, hours before the Bank of Japan is scheduled to wrap up its latest policy decision meeting.

Japanese inflation rose slightly in August, with prices up 2.8 percent year-on-year, official data showed Friday, hours before the Bank of Japan was widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged.

Japan's core consumer inflation accelerated for the fourth straight month in August and tracked comfortably above the central bank's 2% target, data showed on Friday, keeping alive expectations for further interest rate hikes.