Posted on 12 Aug 2024
China's Consumer Price Index (CPI) gained 0.5% from the same period last year and also increased 0.5% from June in July, while the Producer Price Index (PPI) fell by 0.8% on year and 0.2% on month, according to the latest date released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday morning.
The country's CPI rebounded last month after falling continuously in the previous two months, mainly driven by the increases in prices of food and tourism industries, explained Dong Lijuan, a senior statistician with NBS.
In July, China's food prices reversed the prior month's drop and rose by 1.2% from June, with the prices of fresh vegetables and eggs growing by 9.3% and 4.4% respectively, NBS data showed. On a yearly basis, the food prices also stopped falling and stabilized. "The scorching summer heat plus heavy rains in some regions of the country limited food supply," Dong noted.
Meanwhile, travel activities remained robust last month as most Chinese students were enjoying their summer vacation over July-August, Dong pointed out. As such, the prices of air fare and hotel accommodation rose by 22.1% and 5.8% from June, with both increments higher than the average on-month growth in the past decade, according to NBS data.
Excluding food and energy, China's core inflation went up 0.3% on month and gained 0.4% on year in July, the data showed.
In contrast, China's PPI stayed on a downward trend in July, dragged by slack industrial demand and softening bulk commodity prices around the world, according to Dong.
For the domestic steelmaking and fabrication industry, its ex-work prices slid by 1.7% on month and 3.7% on year in the past month, as downstream steel demand was undermined by the persistent weakness in the real estate market and the hot and humid summer weather across the country, according to NBS data.
Nevertheless, prices of the coal mining and processing industry stood flat on month and edged up 0.3% on year, as domestic demand for thermal coal remained strong in the summer electricity peak, the data showed.
Over January-July, China's CPI increased by 0.2% on year, while the country's PPI dropped 2% from the same period last year, according to NBS statistics.
Source:Mysteel Global
