BEIJING- China’s annual consumer inflation slowed down in February as consumers remained cautious despite the abandonment of strong pandemic controls late last year, official data showed on Thursday.
Producer deflation extended into a fifth month.
The consumer price index (CPI) for the month was 1.0 percent higher than a year earlier, rising at the slowest pace since February 2022 and compared with the 2.1 percent annual rise seen in January, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The result fell short of the median estimate of a 1.9 percent gain in a Reuters poll.
The CPI, which is seasonally adjusted, fell 0.5 percent from a month earlier, missing the forecast of 0.2 percent gain. The monthly CPI rise in January was 0.8 percent.
The government has set a target for average consumer prices in 2023 to be about 3 percent higher than last year, when prices were up 2 percent on 2021 and fell short of a target for 3 percent.
Annual producer deflation deepened last month. The producer price index (PPI) in February fell 1.4 percent from a year earlier, largely driven by softer commodity costs. That compared with an annual contraction of 0.8 percent seen in January and the median February expectation for a 1.3 percent decline in a Reuters poll.
Since October, producer prices have been consistently lower than a year earlier.
China’s parliament has set what analysts say is a conservative growth target for 2023 gross domestic product of around 5 percent, a sign that policymakers are aware of economic headwinds.
