China’s consumer prices increased mildly in October, while the decline in factory-gate prices widened, official data showed on Saturday.
Dong Lijuan, a statistician at the National Bureau of Statistics, attributed the year-on-year CPI growth to a stable operation of the consumer market, while the PPI declined due to factors including falling international commodity prices.
Meanwhile, Dong noted that the prices will likely stabilize in the following months with a package of stimulus policy measures taking effect gradually.
The country’s consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose by 0.3 percent year-on-year in October after a 0.4 percent rise in September, the NBS said.
Within the CPI, food prices rose 2.9 percent year-on-year in October versus a 3.3 percent annual rise in September. Notably, the price of fresh vegetables and fresh fruits surged 21.6 percent and 4.7 percent in October following a 22.9 percent growth and 6.7 percent rise in September, respectively.
Pork, a staple in Chinese cuisine, saw prices go up by 14.2 percent in October after a 16.2 percent growth in September, the NBS said.
Meanwhile, non-food prices posted a 0.3 percent decline compared with a year earlier in October versus the 0.2 percent decrease in September. The fall in energy prices widened from 3.5 percent in September to 5.1 percent in October. Prices of new energy vehicles and gas-powered cars dropped 6.6 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively.
On a month-on-month basis, the CPI dropped 0.3 percent in October.
The growth in core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is deemed a better gauge of the supply-demand relationship in the economy, rose by 0.2 percent year-on-year in October, up from 0.1 percent growth in September.
China’s producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, dropped by 2.9 percent from a year ago in October, widening from a 2.8 percent fall in September, the NBS said.
On a month-on-month basis, the PPI dropped 0.1 percent in October, narrowing from a 0.6 percent decline in September, according to the NBS.
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