Core consumer prices in Japan rose 2.6 percent in March from a year earlier, with the key gauge of inflation now having remained at or above the Bank of Japan’s 2 percent target for two straight years, government data showed Friday. The pace of increase in the nationwide core consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food, slowed from 2.8 percent in February, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. For the fiscal year that ended in March, core CPI increased 2.8 percent from a year earlier, against the BOJ’s forecast that it would rise 2.8 percent. It followe…