China's October CPI up 0.7%, PPI rises 5.7%

China's consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.7% year on year in October, while remaining flat month on month, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday. 

In the first 10 months of the year, CPI on average was up 0.9% from a year earlier.

The producer price index (PPI) increased 5.7% year on year in October, up 0.7% month on month. Industrial input prices rose 7.9% year on year and 1.1% month on month. In the January-October period, PPI was up 2.7% from a year earlier on average, while industrial input prices rose 4%.

Dong Lijuan, chief statistician at the NBS Urban Surveys Department, said the CPI shifted from increasing to unchanged month on month in October, while the PPI rose 0.7% month on month. Within the industrial consumer goods category, CPI was affected by changes in international market prices as domestic gasoline prices rose 4.2%, contributing approximately 0.14 percentage point to the month-on-month CPI increase.

The increase in travelers during the National Day holiday in October helped push up service prices by 0.1%, adding about 0.04 percentage point to the month-on-month CPI increase. Among food items, prices of eggs, fresh vegetables and fresh fruits all declined, together dragging the month-on-month CPI down by about 0.13 percentage point.

October PPI rose 0.7% month-on-month, 0.5 percentage point slower than September.

Rising international energy prices drove up prices in the domestic oil and natural gas extraction industry and the coal mining and washing industry by 6% and 2.7%, respectively, the NBS said.

Higher upstream basic energy prices and the stronger demand for thermal coal and gas during the critical preparation period for the winter peak also pushed up prices in downstream refined petroleum product manufacturing, organic chemical raw material manufacturing, coal processing, and gas production and supply. Together, these six industries contributed about 0.61 percentage point to the month-on-month PPI increase, accounting for more than 80% of the total gain.