China's April CPI edges up while PPI sees accelerated growth

China's consumer prices (CPI) rose 1.2% in April from a year earlier and 0.3% from the previous month, officials said Monday, attributing the increase to fluctuations in international crude oil prices and holiday travel.

The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, also increased 1.2 percent from a year earlier, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

The average consumer price index growth for the January-April period came in at 0.9% year on year.

The higher consumer price growth in April was largely driven by a surge in energy and service prices, according to Dong Lijuan, the National Bureau of Statistics' (NBS) chief statistician, in an analysis. Rising international crude oil prices also took a toll on China's domestic energy prices, causing a 5.7% year on year surge, a 0.9 percentage point expansion from the previous month.

Public holidays have also contributed to the upward momentum of consumer prices, said Dong. Traditional holidays, including the Qingming Festival, Labor Day holiday and spring breaks in some Chinese regions, fueled strong demand for public transportation. Food supplies have remained stable as the weather is getting warmer, with vegetables, fruits, pork and seafood adequately meeting market demand, she said.

Meanwhile, China's producer price index (PPI) rose 2.8% year on year in April, with the growth rate widening by 2.3 percentage points from March. 

NBS's Dong traced the uptick to three main factors: Higher prices in China's domestic petroleum-related sectors fueled by global price fluctuations, stronger demand in some domestic industries and further improvements in market conditions that pushed prices higher or narrowed price declines across related sectors.

Among major industries with rising prices, non-ferrous metal mining and dressing led the gain with a year-on-year increase of 38.9%. Among major industries with falling prices, non-metallic mineral products dropped 5.5% year on year, with the automobile manufacturing sector declined by 2%.