China Consumer Prices Fall in October, Factory Deflation Persists
BEIJING: Consumer prices in China fell and factory gate deflation persisted in October, as the world’s second-largest economy struggled to emerge from a post-pandemic slump.
The consumer price index (CPI) fell 0.2 percent in October from a year earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (BES) showed on Thursday, a faster decline than forecast a drop of 0.1 percent in a Reuters survey. The CPI remained unchanged in September.
The producer price index (PPI) fell 2.6 percent year-on-year, compared to a 2.5 percent decline in September, marking the 13th consecutive month of decline. Economists had forecast a 2.7 percent drop in October.
Beijing has stepped up measures to support the economy, including issuing 1 trillion yuan ($137.43 billion) in sovereign bonds and allowing local governments to bring forward part of their bond quotas to 2024 .
But headwinds remain: a real estate crisis, local debt risks and political differences with the West all complicate the recovery process.
(Reporting by Liangping Gao, Ella Cao and Ryan Woo; editing by Sam Holmes)
