People shop at a supermarket in Zaozhuang city, Shandong province. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, grew by 1.8 percent year-on-year in December, up from 1.6 percent in November, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.
The country's full-year consumer inflation rose by 2 percent year-on-year, the NBS said.
Compared with a year ago, food prices increased by 4.8 percent in December, up from 3.7 percent in November. Pork, a food staple in China, saw prices surge by 22.2 percent, while that of eggs and fresh fruits rose by 10 percent and 11 percent, respectively
Dong Lijuan, a chief NBS statistician, attributed China's stable prices to the government's measures to effectively coordinate COVID-19 controls with economic and social development and ensure stable supply and prices.
Compared with a year ago, food prices increased by 4.8 percent in December, up from 3.7 percent in November. Pork, a food staple in China, saw prices surge by 22.2 percent, while that of eggs and fresh fruits rose by 10 percent and 11 percent, respectively. However, fresh vegetable prices fell by 8 percent.
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On a month-on-month basis, the December CPI reading was unchanged from November, meaning no price growth was registered. That compares with the 0.2 percent decline in the previous month, the NBS said.
The growth in core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is deemed a better gauge of the supply-demand relationship in the economy, rose by 0.7 percent in December, versus a 0.6 percent increase in November.
Non-food prices dipped 0.2 percent month-on-month in December. Driven by lower international oil prices, domestic gasoline and diesel prices dropped 6.1 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, from November.
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The narrowed year-on-year decrease in the PPI in December was due to the lower comparison base in the same period last year, while declining oil prices have led to the monthly PPI decrease in December, said Dong Lijuan, an NBS statistician
Meanwhile, China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 0.7 percent year-on-year in December of 2022, according to the NBS.
The decrease was narrowed by 0.6 percentage points from that registered in November. On a monthly basis, China's PPI edged down 0.5 percent in December, NBS data showed.
The narrowed year-on-year decrease in December was due to the lower comparison base in the same period last year, while declining oil prices have led to the monthly PPI decrease in December, said NBS' Dong.
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China's PPI went up 4.1 percent year-on-year in 2022, the data showed.