China's CPI further expands to 2.7 pct in May

A customer selects fruits at a supermarket in Handan, north China's Hebei Province, June 12, 2019. China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.7 percent year on year in May, quickening from the 2.5-percent growth for April, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, accelerated to 2.7 percent year on year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

The reading, in line with market expectations, moved up from the 2.5-percent expansion in April and hit a 15-month high. On a monthly basis, consumer prices remained flat last month, compared with the 0.1-percent increase in April.

Food prices climbed 7.7 percent year on year last month, up from 6.1 percent in April, and on a monthly basis, the prices edged up 0.2 percent, according to the NBS.

Because of reduced yields of apples and pears last year, understocks of fruits and rainy weather in southern China, the fruit prices hiked both on a yearly and monthly basis.

Fruit prices went up 26.7 percent year on year in May, while on a month-on-month basis, the prices increased 10.1 percent, contributing to 0.2 percentage points to the monthly CPI growth.

The price of pork went down 0.3 percent month on month with lower consumption demands as the weather became hotter, according to the NBS.
However, compared with a year ago, the pork price was up 18.2 percent, 3.8 percentage points higher than that in April.

Non-food prices gained 1.6 percent year on year, 0.1 percentage points lower than that in April.

The CPI in urban areas rose 2.7 percent year on year, while that in rural areas went up 2.8 percent compared with a year ago, the NBS noted.

NBS official Dong Yaxiu said the carry-over effects resulted in a rise of 1.5 percentage points in the CPI growth in May while new factors contributed to 1.2 percentage points.

Wednesday's data also showed that China's producer price index, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 0.6 percent year on year last month.