China’s producer price index (PPI), which measures the costs of goods at the factory gate, went up 0.9 percent year on year in September 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
The figure moderated from the 2.3 percent year-on-year increase registered in August. On a monthly basis, China’s PPI fell 0.1 percent in September. Due to price declines of bulk commodities, including international crude oil, the prices of industrial products fell for the whole last month, said senior NBS statistician Dong Lijuan.
The coal mining and washing industry saw its PPI fall 2.7 percent year on year in September, while the PPI of the electricity and heat production and supply industry rose 10.1 percent year on year last month, the data showed. The carry-over effect of last year’s price movements contributed about 1.3 percentage points to the year-on-year PPI growth in September, according to the NBS.
Data released also showed that China’s consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.8 percent year on year in September. On a monthly basis, September’s CPI remained generally stable, reversing the 0.1-percent decline in August to inch up 0.3 percent.
Dong Lijuan attributed the stable CPI performance to continuous efforts to coordinated COVID-19 prevention and control with economic and social development, as well as measures to ensure sufficient supply and stable prices.
Food prices went up 1.9 percent month on month, which raised the monthly consumer inflation by about 0.35 percentage points, according to the data. Specifically, the price of fresh vegetables gained 6.8 percent month on month in September due to high temperatures and dry weather.
Driven by rising demand during the holiday season, the price of eggs and fresh fruits jumped by 6 percent and 1.3 percent from August, respectively. Non-food prices rose 1.5 percent from a year ago, lifting the yearly consumer inflation by about 1.21 percentage points. The prices of gasoline and diesel logged moderated year-on-year growth of 19.2 percent and 21 percent, respectively.
