UPDATE 1-Japan wholesale inflation jumps to 7.1 percent

Japanese annual wholesale price inflation jumped to 7.1 percent in July, a 27-year high and well above expectations, adding to fears that high energy and commodity costs are squeezing firms and pushing the economy into recession. The soaring wholesale inflation comes as worries grow that Japan’s longest post-war recovery may have ended as exports — the main engine of growth in the world’s No.2 economy — sputter as the global economy slows. "In the short term, the rise will hurt corporate profits and cost-push inflation will weigh on the economy for a while as it enters a recession," said Naoki Iizuka, a senior economist at Mizuho Securities.