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China consumer prices rise at slower rate in October
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A woman shops for fruit at a supermarket in Beijing on Aug. 9, 2024. (AFP/Adek Berry)
C
hina's consumer inflation rate slowed in October, official data showed Saturday, in a sign that demand remains sluggish in the world's number two economy.
The slowdown comes as authorities have been seeking to boost domestic activity as a property crisis weighs on confidence.
The consumer price index (CPI), a key measure of inflation, rose 0.3 percent year-on-year in October, down from 0.4 percent in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
The latest figure came in below the 0.4 percent forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
The data was released after Chinese lawmakers on Friday unveiled a sweeping plan to lift local government debt and boost spending.
While many major Western economies have been grappling with the threat of high inflation, China has instead been battling low or negative prices.
At the end of 2023, the country sank into deflation for four months, with the sharpest contraction in consumer prices in 14 years in January.
Factory-gate prices also slid 2.9 percent year-on-year in October, compared to a decrease of 2.8 percent in September, the NBS said on Saturday.
This extends a deflationary run that began in late 2022.
Beijing began to unveil a raft of measures in September aimed at boosting economic activity, including rate cuts and the easing of some home purchasing restrictions.
However, analysts have bemoaned the lack of detail so far.
China's Premier Li Qiang this week said he was "fully confident" the country would hit its growth target of around five percent for 2024, but in the third quarter the country saw its slowest expansion in a year and a half.
The impending return of Donald Trump to the White House also threatens further grief for Beijing, with the US president-elect promising punishing tariffs on Chinese goods.
Saturday's data shows "deflationary pressure is clearly persistent in China," Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said in a note.
"Stimulus targeting the consumption side would be more effective to boost domestic demand, and avoid exacerbating the overcapacity problem," Zhang said.
