He consumer’s price index (CPI), the main indicator of inflation in Chinaslowed down its advance again by registering growth of 0.1% year-on-year in April.
In March, the indicator had already marked its lowest rate in a year by slowing its growth rate from 1% in February to 0.7%.
The data offered today by the National Statistics Office (ONE) was 0.3 points below what was predicted by analysts and marks a minimum since the beginning of 2021.
The ONE statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the drop of 0.6 points compared to the March data to the “high comparative base effect” marked in April 2022, when the CPI was affected both by large outbreaks of the covid and the consequent restrictions imposed by the authorities within the framework of the already dismantled policy of ‘zero covid’ as well as the rise in international prices of raw materials.
“In April, the offer market share was generally sufficient and consumer demand gradually recovered,” Dong said.
In the MoM Comparisonconsumer prices fell 0.1% compared to March, contradicting what was announced by analysts, who had announced growth of 0.1%.
The ONE also published today the production price index (IPP), which measures the industrial prices and which fell 3.6% year-on-year in April, a decline 1.1 points more pronounced than that registered the previous month and more pronounced than that predicted by the experts, who advanced a fall of 3%.
Dong pointed to the “fluctuations in the international prices of raw materials”the “generally weak domestic and foreign market demand” and the comparative base effect as factors that explain the drop in the PPI.