He consumer price index (CPI)the main indicator of the inflation in Chinaincreased 0.7% year-on-year in February, breaking the trend of the previous four months, in which the data marked a decrease.
The indicator, released today by the National Statistics Office (ONE) of the Asian country, was above what was expected by analysts, among whom the most general forecast was that of a growth of 0.3%.
This is the biggest advance in the CPI since March of last year, when it also registered an increase of 0.7%.
ONE statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the evolution of the CPI, which had recorded a year-on-year drop of 0.8% in January, to “monthly increase in prices” and to “Lunar New Year effect”the main festive time of the year in China and which fell this year in the middle of February.
Precisely due to this holiday period, the consumer demand for travel and entertainment “increased significantly”said the official, who added that the prices of plane tickets, transportation rentals, trips and movie and show tickets increased between 12.5% and 23.0%.
Dong also highlighted the increase in the price of pork, the favorite of Chinese consumers and which registered an increase after nine consecutive months of decline, and other food products such as fresh fruit or vegetables, for which consumers had have to pay 4.3% and 12.7% more, respectively.
Furthermore, the expert attributed the rise in the CPI to the increase in the price of gasoline, 2%, when in January it had fallen 1%.
In month-on-month terms, consumer prices grew 1% compared to January data, also surprising analysts, who expected the increase would not exceed 0.6%.
The ONE also made public today the producer price index (IPP), which measures industrial prices and which fell 2.7% year-on-year in February, a decrease somewhat greater than that predicted by analysts (-2.3%).
This is the seventeenth consecutive month of decline for the indicator, which worsened its fall by 0.2 points compared to the January figure.
On a month-on-month basis, the PPI fell 0.2% compared to January, experiencing its fourth consecutive month of contraction.
Source: Gestion
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