TOKYO—Japan’s wholesale inflation in December is expected to remain near a recent peak as companies hike prices to offset rising raw material costs, a Reuters poll showed on Friday. The corporate goods price index (CGPI), a gauge of the prices companies charge each other for their goods, in December likely rose 8.8 percent from a year earlier, the poll of 17 economists showed. That would follow a record 9.0 percent year-on-year gain in November, the fastest pace since comparable data became available in 1981. Month-on-month, the wholesale price index is expected to have increased 0.3 percent in December, slightly slowing from 0.6 percent growth in the prior month, the poll showed. “Import (cost) inflation apparently took a break, as the forex rate in December showed a slightly stronger yen compared to November, and the rise in oil prices halted,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. “Nevertheless, domestically, …