TOKYO, July 24 : Japan's core consumer prices rose 1.6 per cent in June from a year earlier, staying below the central bank's 2 per cent target for a fifth straight month as fuel subsidies offset rising raw material costs stemming from the Middle East conflict.The rise in the core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes volatile fresh food prices, matched a median market expectation and followed a 1.4 per cent increase in May.An index that strips away both volatile fresh food and fuel, closely watched by the Bank of Japan as a better gauge of underlying inflation, rose 1.7 per cent in June from a year earlier after a 1.8 per cent rise in May.The data will be among the factors the central bank will scrutinise at its policy meeting next week, where it is widely expected to keep interest rates steady and issue fresh quarterly projections.The BOJ raised interest rates to a 31-year high in June in a landmark step in its policy normalisation, signalling readiness to tighten further as it focuses on taming price pressures from the energy shock triggered by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.