China’s CPI down 0.3 pct in December 2023

BEIJING (Xinhua/APP): China’s consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, edged down 0.3 percent year on year in December 2023, official data showed Friday.

The decline narrowed from a 0.5-percent year-on-year dip registered in November last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). NBS statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the narrowing decline to the cold wave and stronger consumer demand ahead of the New Year holiday. Food prices fell 3.7 percent year on year in December.

The price of pork, a staple meat in China, dropped 26.1 percent from a year earlier, and dragged the CPI down by 0.43 percentage points. Non-food prices rose 0.5 percent year on year, lifting the CPI by 0.38 percentage points. The core CPI, deducting food and energy prices, went up 0.6 percent year on year last month, maintaining a moderate increase.

On a monthly basis, the CPI went up 0.1 percent in December from the previous month, reversing a 0.5-percent decline registered in November last year. In 2023, the country’s CPI went up 0.2 percent, said the NBS. Friday’s data also revealed that China’s producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 2.7 percent year on year in December. On a yearly basis, the PPI in 2023 dropped by 3 percent compared with 2022.