China’s CPI increased 1.3% year-on-year in May

Beijing, Jun 9 (EFE).- China’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), the main indicator of inflation, grew by 1.3 percent year-on-year in May, according to data published Wednesday by the National Statistics Office.

This represents an advance compared to the 0.9 percent registered in April, but a figure below that predicted by analysts, who expected 1.6 percent year-on-year in May.

The office also released Wednesday the Producer Price Index (PPI) for May, an indicator of wholesale inflation, which grew by 9 percent year-on-year.

Through a statement published on the office’s website, statistician Dong Lijuan said the efforts of the different actors to “guarantee supply and stabilize prices” managed to keep them “generally stable.”

This is the third consecutive month of CPI increase in China, after the 0.9 percent year-on-year in April and 0.4 percent in March, while the year had started with a decline of 0.3 percent year-on-year in January and the 0.2 percent in February.

Figures from the office show food prices increased 0.3 percent year-on-year in the fifth month of the year, while non-food prices increased 1.6 percent.

The cost of pork, the most popular meat for Chinese consumers, fell again in May (23.8 percent year-on-year) as the nation’s swine recovered from the African swine fever epidemic that wiped out tens of millions of pigs in the country since mid-2018, causing high price volatility.

The prices of fresh vegetables (+ 5.4 percent year-on-year) took a different direction in May, eggs (+14.3 percent), aquatic products (+13.8 percent) or fresh fruit, with a 1.4 percent advance.

Among non-food products, the cost of consumer goods increased 1.6 percent year-on-year in May, while that of services increased 0.9 percent.

In the same period, the cost of education, culture and entertainment increased by 1.5 percent, while that of transport and communications grew by 5.5 percent year-on-year.

PPI, which rose 9 percent year-on-year in May, the office highlighted the strong increase – 99.1 percent year-on-year – in prices in the oil and natural gas extraction industry.

According to the agency, the rise in the PPI was conditioned by the increase in international prices of crude oil, iron ore and other non-ferruginous metals, among other materials, although national demand recovered steadily. EFE

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