China’s national consumer price index rose 1.5 percent on the year last month, according to official data, matching analysts’ forecasts.
The index has now risen for three straight months, with the yearly increase in May 0.3 percentage point higher than the climb in April, figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics this morning showed.
Rises in medical care, education, living and transport costs were the main influencers on the rise in CPI, said Sheng Guoqing, a senior statistician at the bureau.
Some 19 chief economists of financial institutions surveyed by Yicai Global previously forecast that CPI would continue to rise this month due to a strong non-food index in recent months. The average of their predictions gave a climb of 1.5 percent, matching the data released today.
At the same time, the producer price index fell 0.3 percent on the quarter but jumped 5.5 percent on the year. The climb was somewhat smaller than the previous month, which saw a 6.4 percent rise from the same time a year earlier. The experts’ almost correctly predicted the rise in PPI, with the average forecast giving a 5.69 percent rise.
Indices for Coal mining, petroleum and natural gas mining, petroleum processing, ferrous and non-ferrous metal smelting and chemical raw materials all grew less over the past year than the year before, the data showed.
Source: yicaiglobal.com
