China Consumer Price Inflation Unexpectedly Eases
(RTTNews) - China's consumer price inflation unexpectedly slowed in August and factory gate inflation hit an 18-month low, providing space for the central bank to ease its monetary policy to support the struggling economy.
Consumer price inflation eased to 2.5 percent in August from 2.7 percent in July, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed Friday. The rate was forecast to rise slightly to 2.8 percent.
Core inflation that excludes food and energy prices, held steady at 0.8 percent in August.
Food price inflation came in at 6.1 percent in August, down from 6.3 percent in July. The annual price growth was largely driven by the 22.4 percent increase in pork prices.
In a separate communiqué, the NBS said producer price inflation slowed notably to 2.3 percent in August from 4.2 percent in July. The rate was also below economists' forecast of 3.1 percent. Factory gate inflation is set to fall further throughout the rest of the year thanks to a continued drop back in commodity prices and a higher base for comparison, economists at Capital Economics, said.
Also, the economists expect consumer price inflation to remain below the central bank's 3 percent ceiling.
As such, the People's Bank of China will not be constrained to ease policy further to support economy, economists noted. After lowering policy rates in August, the bank is likely to cut policy rates during the rest of the year.
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