Official figures released on Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicate that China’s consumer price index (CPI), the key measure of inflation, increased by 0.7 per cent in November compared to the same month last year. The figures were reported in multiple media outlets.
The rise marks an acceleration from the 0.2 per cent annual increase recorded in October and represents the swiftest rate of growth since March 2024. The 0.7 per cent rise also aligned with the consensus forecast from a Reuters poll of economists.
The NBS noted that the stronger year-on-year gain was largely due to rising food prices, which reversed a trend of decline observed in previous months.
However, on a monthly basis, the CPI dipped by 0.1 per cent in November. Officials attributed this fall to seasonal drops in service prices following the end of the peak autumn travel period.
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Underlying demand showed signs of gradual improvement, with the core CPI – which excludes the volatile food and energy categories – rising by 1.2 per cent year-on-year last month. This metric has now remained above the 1 per cent mark for three consecutive months.
In contrast to the acceleration in consumer inflation, the Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, saw a persistent decline. The PPI fell by 2.2 per cent year-on-year in November.
This decline was greater than the 2.1 per cent fall registered in October and also worse than the 2 per cent drop forecasted by economists. The chief statistician at the NBS, Dong Lijuan, stated that the annual fall was mainly due to a high comparison base from the same period in the previous year.
On a month-on-month basis, however, the PPI managed to edge up by 0.1 per cent, extending its gains for the second consecutive month. This monthly uptick was attributed by Dong to a seasonal rise in domestic demand – specifically linked to the winter heating period in various regions – as well as factors driven by imports, which affected the pricing trends of nonferrous metals and petroleum-related products.
