China Inflation Steady At 0.3%; PPI Continues To Fall
(RTTNews) - China's consumer prices logged a steady but meager growth and producer prices continued to fall in May, signalling that more stimulus measures are required to boost demand and consumption.
The consumer price index posted an annual increase of 0.3 percent in May, the same pace as in April, the National Bureau of Statistics reported Wednesday. Prices were expected to rise 0.4 percent.
Inflation continues to hover well below the government's full year target of 3 percent.
Food prices dropped at a slower pace of 2.0 percent on year after a 2.7 percent fall. Excluding energy and food prices, core inflation edged down to 0.6 percent from 0.7 percent.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices slid 0.1 percent, offsetting last month's 0.1 percent gain and came in contrast to economists' forecast of no change.
Capital Economics' economist Zichun Huang said inflation is likely to rebound in the coming months. But due to persistent overcapacity, it will probably remain very low for the foreseeable future.
Another data from the NBS showed that producer prices continued to fall for the 20th straight month.
Producer prices slid 1.4 percent annually in May but slower than April's 2.5 percent decrease. Moreover, this was slightly better than economists' forecast of 1.5 percent drop. Month-on-month, the PPI was up 0.2 percent.
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