Consumers bought fruits in a supermarket in Binzhou, Shandong Province, China, October 13 2023. /CFP
China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, remained unchanged in September compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday.
On a monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.2 percent from the previous month, according to the NBS.
The core CPI, deducting food and energy prices, went up 0.8 percent year-on-year last month, with the pace of increase unchanged compared with August.
Meanwhile, China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 2.5 percent year-on-year in September.
The decrease narrowed from a 3-percent decline in August and a 4.4-percent drop registered in July. On a monthly basis, the September PPI edged up 0.4 percent, compared with an increase of 0.2 percent registered in August, the data showed.
Robots were working on the production line in the intelligent workshop in Fuzhou, Fujian Province China, May 31, 2023. /CFP
In September, the consumer market continued to recover, said Dong Lijuan, chief statistician of the Urban Department at the NBS, but due to the higher comparison base in the same period of last year, the CPI turned from rising to flat year-on-year.
Influenced by factors such as the gradual recovery of industrial demand and the continued rise in international crude oil prices, the PPI increased month-on-month and the year-on-year decline narrowed, Dong said.
Bruce Pang, chief economist and head of research at JLL Greater China, told CGTN that the latest data shows that China's economic recovery trend is relatively clear, and there is no systematic and sustained deflationary pressure.
The upward trend of international oil prices pushed up the prices of domestic refined oil products and industrial consumer goods, effectively supported the non-food prices, and offset the downward factors such as the decline in service consumption prices brought about by the ending of the summer travel peak, Pang added.
Commenting on the PPI's trend, Pang said the data shows the relationship between supply and demand in the market continues to improve and reflects a balanced recovery.
Pang pointed that China should continue to be active in expanding demand, give play to the basic role of consumption in driving economic growth, expand consumption by increasing residents' income, and promote effective supply through terminal demand.
(With input from Xinhua)