China's May CPI slips 0.1%, PPI decline deepens amid falling energy prices

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, slid 0.1 percent year-on-year in May, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday.

On a monthly basis, the CPI dropped 0.2 percent last month. The core CPI, deducting food and energy prices, rose 0.6 percent year-on-year in May, accelerating from an increase of 0.5 percent recorded in the previous month.

Meanwhile, the country's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs of goods at the factory gate, dropped 3.3 percent year-on-year and 0.4 percent month-on-month in May.

Dong Lijuan, chief statistician of the NBS, attributed the month-on-month shift in CPI from an increase in April to a decrease in May to falling energy prices.

Dong also noted that the decline in PPI was driven by falling international crude oil prices, which pulled down domestic prices in petroleum-related industries, as well as a seasonal slowdown in demand for energy and raw materials, with coal prices easing and construction activity disrupted by hot and rainy weather in southern regions.

(With input from Xinhua)