China’s economic recovery continues as pressure eases on consumers, manufacturers in August

China’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.4 per cent from a year earlier in August, down from a 2.7 per cent gain in July

China’s producer price index (PPI) dropped 2.0 per cent year on year in August after declining 2.4 per cent in July

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China’s producer price index (PPI) declined 2.0 per cent year on year in August. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:37am, 9 Sep 2020Updated: 10:57pm, 9 Sep 2020

China’s consumer inflation rate eased in August, while downward price pressure on the manufacturing sector following the impact of the coronavirus also improved, data released on Wednesday showed.

The consumer price index (CPI) for August was 2.4 per cent, improving from a 2.7 per cent gain in July, and in line with the 2.4 per cent gain expected by analysts.

August’s producer price index (PPI), reflecting the prices that factories charge wholesalers for their products, fell 2.0 per cent year on year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

That was better than July’s 2.4 per cent decline, marking a seventh straight monthly drop, and only slightly worse than the 1.9 per cent contraction tipped by analysts in a survey by Bloomberg.

Food prices, which make up about a third of the weighting in CPI, rose 11.2 per cent in August from a year earlier, down from a 13.2 per cent increase in July.

While the price of meat increased 42 per cent, pork prices rose 52.6 per cent year on year in August compared to 85.7 per cent in July, while grain rose by 1.5 per cent.

“According to estimates, of the 2.4 per cent year-on-year increase in August, the carry-over impact of last year‘s price changes was approximately 2.1 percentage points, and the impact of the new price increase was approximately 0.3 percentage points,” said Dong Lijuan, a senior statistician at the NBS.