China's consumer price index rises by 2.5%

陈小将

China's factory-gate inflation eased in August to an 18-month low amid weak domestic demand, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.
China's producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, increased 2.3 percent year-on-year in August, following a 4.2 percent rise from the previous month, the NBS said.
On a monthly basis, the PPI declined 1.2 percent in August.
China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose by 2.5 percent year-on-year in August, following a 2.7 percent rise in the previous month, the NBS data showed.
Compared to a year ago, food prices increased 6.1 percent, against a 6.3 percent gain in July, resulting in a rise of around 1.09 percentage points in headline CPI. Notably, pork prices jumped 22.4 percent on a yearly basis, compared with a 20.2 percent increase in the previous month.
On a month-on-month basis, the CPI fell 0.1 percent.
The growth in core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is deemed as a better gauge of the supply-demand relationship in the economy, came in at 0.8 percent year-on-year in August, flat with the previous month.
The government has set an annual consumer inflation target of about 3 percent in 2022.
Fu Linghui, a spokesman for the NBS, said at a recent news conference in Beijing that despite facing rising inflationary pressure, China still enjoys many favorable conditions to keep overall prices stable for the rest of the year.
Looking ahead, Fu said while consumer inflation may rise notably in some months in the second half, China has conditions in place to keep consumer prices stable for the full year.