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BEIJING, June 9 (TiPost)--China’s consumer price index (CPI) climbed 0.2% from a year in May, up from the 0.1% gain in April, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

The growth in core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose by 0.6% year-on-year in May, down from a 0.7% rise in April. The producer price index (PPI) was down 4.6% from a year earlier in May, the lowest since March 2016, compared with the 3.6% year-over-year contraction seen in April.

The latest year-on-year data of CPI and PPI were both lower than market expectations. A surve of 14 institutions by Caixin Media showed that the economists" average forecasts for the year-on-year growth rates of CPI and PPI in May were 0.3% and -4.5%, respectively.

Food prices surged year over year while non-food prices flattened out year over year in May. Food prices rose by 1% in May compared with a year ago, up from the 0.4% rise in April. Pork saw a year-on-year price decline of 3.2 % in May after a year-on-year 4% rise in April as a result of oversupply. The price of fresh vegetables dipped 1.7 %, narrowing from a 13.5% decline in April. Non-food prices stayed flat from a year earlier in May, compared with a 0.1% growth in April. Service prices softened, with a 0.9% increase. Notably, prices for industrial consumer products fell 1.7% in May after a 1.5% fall in April.

On a monthly basis, China’s CPI dipped 0.2% in May after a 0.1% decline in April. Compared with 1% decline in April, food prices fell by 0.7%, contributing to the CPI’s fall by about 0.12 percentage points. Specifically, due to the adequate supply in the market, prices for shrimps and crabs, pork, eggs and fresh fruits declined, resulting in CPI’s fall by about 0.13 percentage points, or more than 60% of the total decline in CPI. Non-food prices fell 0.1% in May, compared with a 0.1% increase in April. Travel demand scaled down after the “May Day” holiday. As a result, prices for airplane tickets and vehicle rental fees fell 7.2%.

Both of the PPI year-on-year and monthly decline are worsened in May. Dong Lijuan, an NBS statistician, said the consumer inflation picked up marginally with the gradual recovery in consumer demand, while the fall in factory-gate prices was affected by declining international commodity prices,

weak demand for industrial products at both home and abroad, as well as a high comparison base in the previous year.

China’s PPI fell 4.6% year on year in May. Among them, the price of production materials fell 5.9%, a decline of 1.2 percentage points. The living materials prices declined 0.1%, compared with an increase of 0.4% from the previous month.

On a monthly basis, the PPI was fell 0.9% in May, compared with 0.5% in April. Among them, the price of production materials fell 1.2%, compared with 0.6% in April. The price of consumer goods fell 0.2% in May, compared with a 0.3 percent fall in April.

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