BEIJING, Oct 14(ABC): China’s consumer prices registered an expanded increase in September, while factory-gate inflation eased amid the country’s efforts to secure sufficient supply and stable prices. China’s consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.8 percent year on year in September, expanding by 0.3 percentage points from August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday. On a monthly basis, September’s CPI remained generally stable, reversing the 0.1-percent decline in August to inch up 0.3 percent.
Senior NBS statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the stable CPI performance to continuous efforts to coordinate 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.
The price of pork, a staple meat in China, increased 5.4 percent month-on-month in September, partly due to the reluctance of some pork farmers to sell, while consumer demand rebounded. However, the rise of pork prices moderated in mid-to-late September as China stepped up measures to tame hog price hikes. In September alone, the country released about 200,000 tonnes of pork from government reserves to the market, the highest monthly release in history, according to the country’s top economic planner.