Official figures cited by Reuters show China’s consumer price index (CPI) remaining unchanged year-on-year in July, though it rose by 0.4 percent from June.
The producer price index (PPI) fell 3.6 percent when compared with July 2024, missing economists’ forecast of a 3.3 percent decline. It shrank by 0.2 percent month-on-month.
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) chief statistician Dong Lijuan noted that extreme weather across much of the country and ongoing global trade uncertainties contributed to the decline in some sectors’ prices.
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But the figures also suggest that Beijing’s early efforts to tackle pricing competition have yet to take hold. Earlier this month, the country’s leaders vowed to “address disorderly competition” in several key sectors, seen as a leading cause of economic instability.
Xing Zhaopeng, senior China strategist at ANZ, said he expected Beijing’s “anti-involution” policy measures to start to have a positive effect on year-on-year PPI from August.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and fuel prices, saw a 0.8 percent year-on-year rise in July, a 17-month high. Food prices alone fell 1.6 percent, after a 0.3 percent decline in June.
