China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, fell 2.6% year on year in October and marking the 13th consecutive month of decline, following a 2.5% drop a month earlier, data showed from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on November 9.
On a monthly basis, the index stayed unchanged, compared with a 0.4% rise a month ago. This has strangled positive rises for two months running.
In October, industrial production and operational activities continued to expand. Influenced by factors such as fluctuations in international crude oil and non-ferrous metal prices, as well as the high comparison base of the same month last year, the PPI shifted from a rise to stabilization on a month-on-month basis, and the year-on-year decline slightly widened, said NBS's leading statistician Dong Lijiang.
She noted the expansion in the year-on-year decline was primarily due to the high comparison base in October 2022, when the reading fell 1.3% year on year.
Prices of production materials fell 3.0%, the same as the previous month, while prices of consumer goods fell 0.9%, contracting from a 0.3% fall in September.
In terms of major industries, sectors with a larger decline in prices include non-metallic mineral products, which dropped 7.6%, expanding by 0.6 percentage point, and the ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry, dropping 5.2% from 5.0%.
Coal mining and washing sector registered a narrower price declines, from 15.6% a month ago to 15.4%.
The consumer price index (CPI) fell 0.2% from the same period last year in October, compared to a flat reading in September. On a monthly basis, the index declined 0.1% compared with a 0.2% rise a month earlier.
Within the index, overall food prices dropped 4% year on year, while non-food prices rose 0.7%.
Dong Lijuan said the drop of CPI was due to an ample supply of agriculture products because of good weather and a drop in post-festival consumption following the "golden week" holiday at the start of October.
(Writing by Alex Guo Editing by Emma Yang)
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