BEIJING: China’s consumer inflation slowed in July, losing speed for a third straight month and heading further below the government’s upper limit, official data showed Tuesday. China’s consumer price index rose 1.8 % in July from a year earlier, slower than a 1.9% year-over-year rise in June, the National Bureau of Statistics said, adding that slower growth of food prices was the main factor weighing on the headline figure. The key inflation reading matched a median 1.8% gain forecast by 17 economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
The result was well below Beijing’s targeted maximum of 3% this year, giving policy makers room to further ease monetary policy amid an economic slowdown. On a month-over-month basis, the CPI rose 0.2 % in July from a month earlier. In June, it slipped 0.1% from the previous month.
China’s producer price index declined 1.7 % in July from a year earlier, compared with a 2.6% on-year drop in June. The index has lingered in deflationary territory for over four years, but the decline started to narrow at the beginning of this year. The fall in the gauge of factory-gate prices came in better than economists’ median forecast for a 1.9% decline. The PPI increased 0.2 % in July from a month earlier. In June, it declined 0.2% from the preceding month.
