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China’s consumers experienced rising costs in January, while producers prices continued to fall following Beijing’s abrupt reversal of its zero-COVID strategy in December, official data showed on Friday.
The consumer price index rose 2.1% from a year earlier in January, up from December’s 1.8% increase, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday. That compares with the 2.2% increase expected by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
Food prices rose 6.2% in the first month of 2023 versus December’s 4.8% increase, though growth in pork prices–a key driver–eased to 11.8% from 22.2%, the data showed. Non-food prices increased 1.2% in January, slightly above December’s 1.1% expansion.
Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 1% from a year earlier in January, compared to December’s 0.7% increase.
On a monthly basis, CPI rose 0.8% in January.
Data from the statistics bureau also showed that the producer price index fell 0.8% from a year earlier in January, wider than the 0.7% decline recorded in December and the 0.5% contraction expected by economists in the WSJ poll.
On a monthly basis, PPI dropped 0.4% in January.
