BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - China's consumer price inflation rose only slightly in September due to the fall in food prices, and remained sluggish when compared to global peers, while producer price inflation reached its highest level in over four years on rising commodity prices.
Consumer prices rose 0.9 percent in September from a year ago, slightly faster than the 0.8 percent increase seen in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday.
However, this was weaker than forecast of 1.0 percent and also remained well below the 2 percent target set for 2026.
At the same time, core inflation that excludes volatile food and energy prices remained stable at 1.0 percent.
Food prices decreased 1.7 percent due to the 10.0 percent fall in pork prices. Meanwhile, gasoline prices surged 16.6 percent, contributing about 0.47 percentage points to the annual growth in consumer prices.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices climbed 0.2 percent compared to forecast of 0.3 percent and August's 0.4 percent increase.
Producer price inflation accelerated to 5.0 percent in September from 3.8 percent in August, the NBS reported. The rate hit the highest since June 2022 and surpassed economists' forecast of 4.4 percent.
ING economist Lynn Song said the worst of deflationary pressure may have passed but downside pressures remain. As the People's Bank of China has rolled out targeted easing measures over the past few weeks, inflation is not impeding policy easing.
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