China’s consumer inflation eased in October while producer prices advanced, with food prices falling and the separate producer price index registering a 5.7% annual increase.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.7% from a year earlier, down from 0.9% in September. FXStreet reported that markets had expected a 0.8% annual increase. The CPI was unchanged from September after rising 0.2% that month.
Food prices declined 2.9% year over year, while nonfood prices increased 1.5%, NBS data showed. An NBS statistician’s commentary said fresh vegetables, pork and fresh fruit prices fell 16.9%, 8.6% and 3.8%, respectively. Together, those declines subtracted about 0.54 percentage point from October’s year-over-year CPI reading.
Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.8% from a year earlier, down 0.2 percentage point from September.
Separately, the NBS reported that the producer price index rose 5.7% year over year and 0.7% month over month. EconoTimes previously covered the divergence between China’s producer and consumer price measures.
