China consumer prices drop in Dec

China's consumer prices fell for a third consecutive month in December while factory-gate prices declined at a slower pace, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday.

The country's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, dropped by 0.3 percent year-on-year in December, the NBS said, after a 0.5 percent drop in November.

Within the CPI, food prices fell 3.7 percent year-on-year in December, compared with a 4.2 percent drop in November. The decline in prices of pork - a staple for Chinese dinner tables - narrowed from 31.8 percent in November to 26.1 percent in December.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI increased by 0.1 percent in December, versus a 0.5 decline in November.

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 0.6 percent year-on-year in December, the same as November.

Dong Lijuan, a NBS statistician, said the narrowed year-on-year decline in CPI as well as the month-on-month growth in CPI came mainly due to multiple factors including cold weather and the increase in pre-holiday consumer demand.

China's producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, dropped by 2.7 percent from a year ago in December, following a 3 percent fall in November, the NBS said.

Dong said the PPI decline was affected by factors including declining international prices of oil and insufficient demand for some industrial products.

On a month-on-month basis, the PPI dipped by 0.3 percent in December, the same as November, according to the NBS.

ouyangshijia@chinadaily.com.cn