Consumer prices in mainland China rose 1.8 per cent year-on-year in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, down slightly from June’s growth of 1.9 per cent and matching a median estimate of 1.8 per cent from economists surveyed. In month-on-month terms, consumer prices returned to growth with a rise of 0.2 per cent.
Price moves for foodstuffs – a key driver of changes in the headline figure – helped keep the gauge in check, as inflation for food, tobacco and liquor fell about one percentage point to to 2.8 per cent growth year-on-year.
A rise in pork prices of 16.1 per cent for the period pushed up the headline figure by 0.42 percentage points. Unusually, the bureau did not give an independent figure on the contribution from a 4.3 per cent rise in vegetable prices, instead combining it with that of eggs and stating those categories had together contributed 0.11 percentage points to the gauge’s overall rise.