China’s consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, posted a milder increase in April due to falling food prices, official data showed Thursday.
The CPI rose 1.8 percent year-on-year last month, compared with 2.1 percent for March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
On a month-on-month basis, the CPI edged down 0.2 percent.
Lower food prices were “the major reason” for the CPI decline from March, said NBS statistician Sheng Guoqing.
Food prices slipped 1.9 percent month-on-month and climbed only 0.7 percent year on year.
The price of pork, China’s staple meat, slumped 16.1 percent year on year, dragging down CPI growth by 0.43 percentage points. It fell 6.6 percent month on month.
Non-food prices rose 2.1 percent from the same period of last year and 0.2 percent from March.
China aims to keep annual CPI growth at around 3 percent this year, the same as the target for 2017.
Lian Ping, chief economist at Bank of Communications, said that the economy is unlikely to experience high inflation this year given that there has not been substantial rebound in demand, and the growth of credit supply has slowed.
China’s producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 3.4 percent year-on-year in April, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.
It was up from the 3.1 percent recorded in March, driven by growth in factory prices in the mining industry and raw material sector.
In the first four months, the PPI rose by 3.6 percent year on year, easing from 3.7-percent growth in the first quarter.
In breakdown, factory prices of the mining industry went up 6.1 percent, and those of raw materials rose 5.7 percent.
Of the 40 sectors covered by the NBS survey, 16 industries saw prices decline compared with a month earlier. Gas producers and suppliers, and the non-ferrous metal metallurgy sector reported smaller price declines.
The mild PPI increase indicates material demand in the real economy remains lukewarm, according to analysts.
The NBS also reported on Thursday that China’s consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.8 percent year-on-year in April, down from 2.1 percent for March.
Mild inflation pressure should give Chinese policymakers plenty of room to deal with financial risks while keeping monetary policy prudent and neutral.
China sets its consumer inflation target at around 3 percent in 2018, the same range as last year.
