China’s total retail sales of consumer goods in June increased by 2% compared with the same period last year. July data will be released on Thursday. August 15th.
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BEIJING – Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday showed that China’s consumer prices rose 0.5% in July from a year earlier, driven by rising pork prices, exceeding expectations.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the consumer price index to rebound slightly by 0.3% in July from a year earlier, compared with 0.2% in June.
Official data from Wind Information showed that the CPI rose by 0.5% in July, the highest since the 0.7% increase in February. February this year marks the biggest festival of the year in China – the Lunar New Year.
Pork is a widely consumed staple food in China, and its price increased by 20.4% year-on-year in July. This is the largest increase since December 2022, according to Wind.
Pork prices play an important role in China’s consumer price index, but are prone to large fluctuations due to disease or other factors that affect production.
Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, increased 0.4% year-on-year in July. This was down from 0.6% in June.
The industrial producer price index fell by 0.8% year-on-year in July. That was slightly below the forecast decline of 0.9% and in line with June’s 0.8% decline.
China reported on Wednesday that imports rose 7.2% year-on-year in July, stronger than expected, while exports rose 7%, lower than expected.
Exports have been a bright spot amid slowing economic growth.
Retail sales in June increased slightly by 2% compared with last year. The authorities have since expanded trade-in programs to facilitate consumer purchases of cars, home appliances and certain other products.
China is to release July retail sales, industrial production and other data on Thursday.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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