China News Service, Beijing, December 12 (Reporter Wang Enbo) China's National Bureau of Statistics announced on the 9th that China's consumer price index (CPI) fell in November due to factors such as the fluctuation and downward movement of food and energy prices, but the core CPI excluding food and energy prices remained stable.
Dong Lijuan, chief statistician of the Urban Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that on a year-on-year basis, the CPI fell by 11.0% in November. The year-on-year decline was 5.0 percentage points higher than that of the previous month, mainly due to the year-on-year increase in energy prices, which increased by 3.0 percentage points year-on-year on the year-on-year decline in CPI.
Among them, food prices fell by 4.2 percent, a slight increase of 0.2 percentage points. Among food, pork prices fell by 31.8 percent, an increase of 1.7 percentage points. Non-food prices rose by 0.4 percent, down 0.3 percentage points. Among non-food items, energy prices fell by 1.2% from a 1.3% increase in the previous month.
According to official estimates, China's core CPI rose 11.0% year-on-year in November, the same increase as the previous month, and continued to maintain a moderate increase.
On a month-on-month basis, the CPI fell by 11.0% in November, mainly due to the warm weather, sufficient supply of agricultural products, the decline in international oil prices, and the seasonal decline in demand for services such as travel. Among them, food prices fell by 5.0%, a decrease of 9.0 percentage points beyond the seasonal level (the average level of the same period in the past ten years, the same below), affecting the CPI to decline by about 8.0 percentage points.
In terms of food, the average temperature in most parts of China in November was higher than that of the same period in normal years, which was conducive to the production, storage and transportation of agricultural products, and the decline in fresh foods such as fresh vegetables, eggs and aquatic products exceeded the seasonal level. The increase in the number of pigs slaughtered, coupled with the delay in the demand for cured meat in the warmer weather, the price of pork fell super-seasonally, down 11.3%.
In the same month, non-food prices fell by 0.4% month-on-month, affecting the CPI to fall by about 0.29 percentage points. Among the non-food products, affected by the decline in international oil prices, domestic gasoline prices fell by 2.8%, the largest decline since the beginning of this year, affecting the CPI to drop by about 0.10 percentage points.
Wen Bin, chief economist of China Minsheng Bank, believes that the three major factors of seasonal decline, insufficient demand, and weakening external inflation input have resonated, resulting in a decline in CPI in November. In the next stage, the Politburo meeting of the Central Committee once again emphasized "focusing on expanding domestic demand", and it is expected that with the policy force, the CPI will not last too long in the negative range in the future, and it is expected to return to positive by February 11. (ENDS)