Posted on 10 Nov 2022
For October, China's Consumer Price Index (CPI) went up 2.1% on year and 0.1% on month, while its Producer Price Index (PPI) fell 1.3% on year but rose 0.2% on month, according to the latest data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday morning.
The on-year and on-month rises of Chinese CPI in October both narrowed from September, as domestic consumer demand waned after the country's National Day holiday over October 1-7, according to Dong Lijuan, a senior statistician with the NBS.
Among key CPI elements, Chinese prices of fresh vegetables and fresh fruits in October both reversed from the prior month's increases, down by 4.5% and 1.6% on month respectively, the NBS data showed. The prices declined because farmers had offered goods in large quantities to the market while demand weakened, Dong noted.
Nonetheless, Chinese pork prices still rose 9.4% on month in October, with the increment being 4 percentage points larger than September, and its on-year growth also expanded by 15.8 percentage points to 51.8%.
The rise in China's pork prices is largely because pig farmers continued to hold back for sales last month and pork consumption was in the traditional high season, according to Dong.
Regarding China's PPI in October, it reversed from the previous month's rise and dropped 1.3% on year. The on-year decline had mainly to do with the high base in October last year, Dong noted, adding that PPI went up on month as demand had improved in some domestic sectors.
For example, prices in China's coal mining and processing industry increased by 3% on month in October, with the growth up by 2.5 percentage points, since end-users have been building coal inventories for the coming winter. The prices dropped by 16.5% on year though.
In contrast, prices in the oil and natural gas drilling industry lost 2.2% on month, and those in the oil, coal and other fuels processing industry dipped 0.6% on month. On a yearly basis, however, prices in the two sectors rose 21% and 8.6% respectively.
Meanwhile, Chinese steelmaking and fabrication sector saw its ex-works prices edge down 0.4% on month and 21.1% lower on year in October.
Over January-October, China's CPI increased 2% on year, while PPI rose 5.2% on year, according to NBS's latest statistics.
Source:Mysteel Global
