BEIJING, Jan 10 (AFP): China's factory inflation slowed to a 13-month low in December, official data showed Wednesday, a sign of continued fragility in the world's second-largest economy.
The producer price index (PPI) -- an important barometer of the industrial sector which measures the cost of goods at the factory gate-rose 4.9 per cent year-on-year in December, its lowest rate since November 2016, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
This marked a sharp slowdown from the 5.8 per cent year-on-year rise in November and 6.9 per cent rise in October, but was slightly higher than the 4.8 per cent increase forecast by a Bloomberg News survey of economists. NBS analyst Sheng Guoqing said the drop was due to declines in five major industries: oil and natural gas mining, ferrous metal smelting, oil processing, non-ferrous metal smelting, and coal mining.
A further decline in the PPI-highly correlated with earnings growth among indebted industrial firms-would "push the People's (central) Bank to ease monetary policy over the course of this year," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, analyst at Capital Economics, in a note.
China factory inflation slows to 13-month low
FE Team | Published: January 11, 2018 00:49:20
China factory inflation slows to 13-month low
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