China's CPI up 2.5% in June, as prices rise for pork, vegetables

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose by 2.5 percent year on year in June, expanding 0.1 percentage points than May due to increasing prices of pork and vegetables.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, pork prices increased by 3.6 percent, reverted from a decline of 8.1 percent last month, affected by a tighter supply of pork due to factors such as slower slaughter of live pigs and stricter requirements for epidemic prevention deployment and reduced imports.

Vegetables prices were up by 2.8 percent in June on a monthly basis due to the lack of supply in short-term in some places, which are attributed to flood disasters and a new spike in coronavirus cases in Beijing's Xinfadi, the biggest wholesale market in Asia. Other categories in food such as seasonal fruits and eggs recorded a drop of 7.6 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively, in prices, contributed to stable supplies.

For non-food items, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to affect travel, air ticket and tourism prices falling by 6.1 percent and 1.8 percent respectively. Clothing prices changed rebound from a 0.2-percent increase last month to a 0.2 percent decrease in June as summer clothing began to offer discounts.

On yearly basis, food prices rose by 11.1 percent, an increase of 0.5 percentage points, affecting CPI rose by about 2.24 percentage points. Among foods, pork prices increased by 81.6 percent, beef and lamb prices increased by 18.5 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively. Fresh vegetable prices rose by 4.2 percent, while the prices of fresh fruit and eggs fell by 29.0 percent and 15.8 percent, respectively.

In the first half of the year, CPI rose by 3.8 percent compared to the same period last year.

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, ended a drop of straight four months, increased by 0.1 percent in June on monthly basis, thanks to factors including increased international commodity prices, steadily recovering domestic manufacturing and improved market demand.

Affected by the sharp increase in the price of international crude oil, the prices of products in the petroleum-related industries stopped falling and rebounded. Among them, the prices of the oil and gas extraction industry rose by 38.2 percent in June; the prices of the oil, coal and other fuel processing industries rose by 1.7 percent; the prices of ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industries increased from flat to 1.9 percent.

Although PPI declined three percent in June year on year, the drop narrowed down by 0.7 percentage points compared to the previous month.

In the first half of the year, PPI fell by 1.9 percent compared with the same period last year.

(CGTN)