China's inflation remains benign

BEIJING, June 10 (Xinhua): China's inflation remains benign as consumer price growth is mild and factory prices of industrial products slightly rising in May.

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed Saturday that China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.8 per cent year-on-year in May.

NBS statistician Sheng Guoqing mainly attributed the rise to carry-over effects, with new price-rising factors contributing only 0.4 percentage points.

Food prices edged up by 0.1 per cent, resulting in a growth of 0.01 percentage points in the price index.

Non-food prices rose by 2.2 per cent, generating a rise of 1.74 percentage points.

The prices of eggs and vegetables and mutton surged by 24.7 per cent, 10 per cent and 13.5 per cent respectively.

The price hikes have been largely offset by the decline in fruit and pork prices, according to Sheng.

In May, the price of pork and fruit dropped by 16.7 per cent and 2.7 per cent, respectively, dragging down food prices by 0.48 percentage points.

As for non-food prices, the costs of health care products grew by 5.1 per cent while that of education and housing jumped by 2.7 per cent and 2.2 per cent, respectively.

On a month-on-month basis, consumer prices fell by 0.2 per cent, following the same decline in April.

The CPI breakdown showed that lower food price were still the main factor in the decline, with non-food price inflation staying largely flat.

As domestic retail oil prices rose notably in May, the prices of gasoline and diesel grew by 3.7 per cent and 4.1 per cent, respectively.

Meanwhile, health care, clothing, household items and residence all recorded moderate pick-ups.

The core CPI excluding food and energy edged down to 1.9 per cent in May from 2.0 per cent in April, the same as the January figure and the lowest in nearly 15 months.

Liu Xuezhi, a senior researcher with the Bank of Communications said this.

"Real inflation has been mild, and there is no obvious inflationary pressure thanks to the performance of core CPI and weak price-rising factors," Liu added.

In May, the producer price index (PPI), a measure of industrial product inflation, rose by 4.1-per cent year on year, the highest growth in four months.

The PPI also increased by 0.4 per cent month-on-month in May, reversing the decline since February, as factory prices of production materials rose.

In May, the factory prices of production materials edged up by 0.5-per cent month on month, compared to a decline of 0.2 per cent in April.

In February and March, the declines were 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.