NBS: YoY Growth Rate of CPI Fell Back while PPI Increased Slightly in July

SHANGHAI, Aug 9 (SMM) - National Statistics Bureau (NBS) released today the July CPI (Consumer Price Index) and PPI (Producer Price Index) data. Details are listed as follows.

Month-on-month growth rate of CPI reversed the previous downtrend, while the year-on-year growth narrowed.

In July, the market supply and demand was generally stable owing to sound epidemic prevention and control by local governments, flood relief, economic and social development, and active implementation of policies to ensure supply and price stability.

On the monthly basis, CPI turned from a 0.4% decline to a 0.3% rise in July. Among them, food prices fell by 0.4%, which narrowed by 1.8 percentage points compared with the previous month, affecting the CPI to fall about 0.06 percentage points. Specifically, affected by extreme weather such as typhoons and heavy rainfall in some areas, the cultivation & storage and transportation costs of fresh vegetables increased, with prices turning from a 2.3% drop to a 1.3% rise in July; pork supply continued to increase, with prices continuing to fall by 1.9%, but with the support of the policy of collecting pork as reserves, the drop narrowed significantly by 11.7 percentage points from last month. Non-food prices were flat last month and rose by 0.5% in July, affecting the CPI to rise about 0.37 percentage points. Among them, industrial consumer goods prices rose 0.4%, expanded by 0.3 percentage points from last month, mainly due to price increase of gasoline and diesel fuel, which up 3.5% and 3.8% respectively; service prices fell 0.1% in the previous month and rise 0.6% in July, and the prices of airline tickets, tourism and hotel accommodation rose 24.3%, 7.3% and 3.8% respectively as a result of summer vocation.

On a yearly basis, CPI rose 1.0%, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous month. Among them, food prices fell 3.7%, which expanded by 2.0 percentage points from the previous month, affecting the CPI to fall about 0.69 percentage points. Specifically, pork prices fell by 43.5%, expanded by 7.0 percentage points over the previous month; freshwater fish prices rose by 30.9%, a drop of 2.6 percentage points; eggs and edible vegetable oil prices rose by 18.3% and 9.5% respectively. Non-food prices rose by 2.1%, an increase of 0.4 percentage points over the previous month, affecting the CPI to rise about 1.70 percentage points. Among them, prices of industrial consumer goods rose 2.8%, an increase of 0.3 percentage points; airline tickets, gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas prices rose 53.5%, 25.4%, 28.2% and 13.5%, respectively, which all increased from the previous month; service prices rose 1.6%, an increase of 0.6 percentage points, among which hotel accommodation, tourism, and decoration and maintenance prices rose 8.1%, 7.8% and 3.9% respectively.

Based on calculations, among the 1.0% of year-on-year increase in July, the tail effect of last year's price changes was around 0.5 percentage points, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous month; the effect of new price increases was around 0.5 percentage points, an expansion of 0.2 percentage points from the previous month. The core CPI excluding food and energy prices rose by 1.3% year-on-year, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the previous month.

Growth rate of PPI expanded slightly in July

In July, the growth rate of PPI slightly expanded in July, as the prices of crude oil, coal and related products prices rose sharply.

On a monthly basis, PPI rose 0.5%, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the previous month. Among them, the price of production materials rose 0.6%, an increase of 0.1 percentage points; living materials prices fell 0.2% in the previous month and rise 0.1% in July. Commodity supply and price stabilisation policy started to affect market prices. Among them, steel, non-ferrous metals and other industry prices fell slightly. Specifically, ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry prices fell 0.2%, non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry prices fell 0.1%. Influenced by the hot weather and strong demand for power coal, prices in the coal mining and washing industry rose by 6.6%, an increase of 1.4 percentage points. International crude oil prices rose, driving domestic oil-related industries to lift prices. To look in details, oil extraction prices rose 7.1%, refined petroleum products manufacturing prices rose 3.0%, an increase of 4.1 and 0.5 percentage points, respectively. Agricultural prices rose faster, among which fertilizer manufacturing prices rose 5.0% and pesticide manufacturing prices rose 1.5%.

On a yearly basis, PPI rose by 9.0%, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the previous month. Among them, the price of production materials rose 12.0%, an increase of 0.2 percentage points; the price of living materials rose 0.3%, the same growth rate as last month. In the 40 industrial industry sectors surveyed, prices rose in 32 sectors, an increase of 2 over the previous month; and prices went down in the rest 8 sectors, down 2 from the previous month. Among the major industries, some increased more than 20%: ferrous metal mining industry up 54.6%; oil and gas extraction up 48.0%; coal mining and washing industry up 45.7%; oil, coal and other fuel processing industry up 35.4%; ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry up 33.0%; non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry up 23.5%; chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing up 21.3%; chemical fiber manufacturing up 20.9%. The above eight industries together affected the PPI to rise about 7.5 percentage points, more than 80% of the total increase.

According to calculations, among the 9.0% year-on-year increase in July, the tail effect of last year's price changes was about 2.1 percentage points, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous month; the effect of new price increases was about 6.9 percentage points, an expansion of 0.5 percentage points.