BEIJING: China’s consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, grew by 1.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) last month, up from 0.7% in September and marking a 13-month high, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said yesterday.

       The CPI growth went up as vegetable prices increased due to rainy weather, higher costs and Covid-19 cases in some areas.

       Meanwhile, the price rise in industrial consumer goods accelerated amid rising oil and diesel prices, the NBS said.

       On a month-on-month basis, the CPI grew by 0.7% in October, compared with 0% in the previous month.

       The growth in core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is deemed a better gauge of the supply-demand relationship in the economy, came in at 1.3% in October, versus 1.2% in September.

       Dong Lijuan, a senior NBS statistician, said consumer prices rose last month due to special weather, rising costs and tight supply of some goods, while industrial goods prices also increased at a faster speed amid rising international oil prices and tight domestic supply of energies and raw materials.

       China’s producer price index (PPI), which gauges factory gate prices, rose by 13.5% y-o-y last month, up from 10.7% in September and marking the highest level since the NBS started to release the numbers in 1996.

       Specifically, prices of the coal processing industry rose by 103.7% y-o-y last month amid tight supply.

       Seven sectors including oil and gas extraction, ferrous and nonferrous metal smelting and chemicals manufacturing saw prices growing between 12% and 59.7% on a yearly basis.

       The PPI rose by 2.5% on a monthly basis in October, up from 1.2% in September.

       Earlier, it had been reported that China’s economy had hit its slowest pace of growth in a year in the third quarter.

       This was due to power shortages and an unstable property sector, highlighting the challenge facing policymakers who are seeking to prop up its recovery while managing the real estate sector.

       Electricity shortages had sent factory output back to levels last seen in early 2020, when heavy Covid-19 curbs were in place, reports said. ― China Daily/ANN