China July CPI Down 1.8% Year-On-Year

飞雪寒冰

China's consumer price index (CPI), an indicator of inflation, fell for the sixth consecutive month and by the largest margin in 2009 in July, dropping 1.8 percent year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

CPI in the first seven months fell 1.2 percent over the same period last year, the NBS said at an August 11 press conference in Beijing. In June, CPI was down 1.7 percent year-on-year.

Food prices declined 1.2 percent, clothing 2.4 percent and household appliances 0.4 percent year-on-year, the bureau said.

Housing costs, including rent and other bills, fell 5.8 percent year-on-year, while transport and communications prices were down 2.7 percent, and entertainment, education and cultural product prices fell 0.7 percent.

Cigarette and alcohol prices rose 1.2 percent year-on-year, with medical services prices up 0.7 percent.

飞雪寒冰

The July urban CPI declined 1.9 percent year-on-year, with the index down 1.6 percent in rural areas, the bureau added.

Ha Jiming, chief economist of China International Capital Corp., told Caijing earlier that China's deflationary period is coming to an end and "inflationary pressure is not far away."

But People's Bank of China vice governor Su Ning said August 7 that the central bank has no concerns over inflation in the near term. The central bank estimated in a July report that CPI will bottom out in the third quarter.

China's producer price index (PPI), a measure of inflation based on wholesale prices, fell 8.2 percent year-on-year in July and 6.2 percent in the first seven months, the National Bureau of Statistics said.