BEIJING: China's consumer prices rose for the first time in six months due to spending linked to the Chinese New Year, offering some reprieve for the world's second-biggest economy grappling with weak consumer sentiment, while factory-gate prices fell again. The consumer price index (CPI) climbed 0.
Pork sellers attend to customers at the Xinfadi wholesale market in Beijing, China February 2, 2024. REUTERS/Mei Mei Chu/File photoBEIJING: China's consumer prices rose for the first time in six months due to spending linked to the Chinese New Year, offering some reprieve for the world's second-biggest economy grappling with weak consumer sentiment, while factory-gate prices fell again.
The bounce into positive territory contrasted with the 0.8 per cent fall in January, the steepest drop in over 14 years, due to a higher statistical base in January 2023 as the Chinese New Year arrived earlier that month and boosted spending. In February this year, CPI rose 1.0 per cent month-on-month, outpacing the 0.3 per cent uptick in January and the 0.7 per cent growth forecast by economists.
In January-February, CPI was unchanged from a year earlier, with food prices down 3.4 per cent and non-food prices 0.9 per cent lower. The head of China's central bank said on Wednesday there was room to cut the amount of cash that commercial banks set aside as reserves, following 50 basis points of cuts in banks' reserve ratio requirement in January, the biggest in two years.
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