BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s consumer prices rose at a slower-than-expected pace in August amid heatwaves and COVID-19 flare-ups, while producer inflation eased, official data showed.
The consumer price index (CPI) increased 2.5% year-on-year from a 2.7% growth in July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Friday. The reading missed analysts’ median forecast for a 2.8% gain in a Reuters poll.
Producer prices rose 2.3% year-on-year in August, the slowest pace since February 2021, and slowing from a 4.2% rise in July and below a forecast for a 3.1 % gain in the poll.
Recent data suggests the world’s second-biggest economy, already depressed by property market weakness and strict COVID-19 restrictions, further lost momentum in August.
(Reporting by Liangping Gao and Ryan Woo; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa and Christopher Cushing)
