In December, policies aimed at expanding domestic demand and promoting consumption continued to show effects, and coupled with the approaching New Year's Day, residents' consumer demand increased. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.2% month-on-month and 0.8% year-on-year, while the core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, increased by 1.2% year-on-year. Influenced by factors such as the transmission of international commodity prices and the ongoing effects of policies governing capacity in key domestic industries, the Producer Price Index (PPI) rose by 0.2% month-on-month but fell by 1.9% year-on-year.
The month-on-month CPI turned from a 0.1% decline in the previous month to a 0.2% increase, primarily driven by rising prices of industrial consumer goods excluding energy. Prices for industrial consumer goods excluding energy increased by 0.6%, contributing approximately 0.16 percentage points to the month-on-month CPI increase.
Specifically, the effects of consumption-boosting policies continued to manifest, and with the New Year holiday approaching, residents' demand for shopping and entertainment increased. Prices for communication devices, maternal and infant products, recreational durable goods, and household appliances all rose, with increases ranging between 1.4% and 3.0%. Influenced by rising international gold prices, domestic gold jewelry prices surged by 5.6%. Energy prices fell by 0.5%, with domestic gasoline prices dropping by 1.2% due to changes in international oil prices, contributing approximately 0.04 percentage points to the month-on-month decline in CPI. Food prices increased by 0.3%, contributing about 0.05 percentage points to the month-on-month CPI rise. Among food items, pre-holiday consumption demand pushed up prices for fresh fruits and shrimp/crab by 2.6% and 2.5%, respectively. Due to relatively favorable weather conditions, fresh vegetable prices rose by a modest 0.8%, which was 3.3 percentage points lower than the typical seasonal increase. With hog capacity remaining ample, pork prices fell by 1.7%.
The year-on-year CPI increase of 0.8% was 0.1 percentage points higher than the previous month, marking the highest level since March 2023. The expansion in the year-on-year increase was mainly driven by a larger rise in food prices. Food prices increased by 1.1%, accelerating by 0.9 percentage points from the previous month, and their upward pull on the year-on-year CPI was about 0.17 percentage points stronger than last month. Within the food category, the increases in prices for fresh vegetables and fresh fruits widened to 18.2% and 4.4%, respectively, jointly contributing about 0.16 percentage points more to the year-on-year CPI increase compared to the previous month. Prices for beef, mutton, and aquatic products rose by 6.9%, 4.4%, and 1.6%, respectively, with all increases widening. Pork prices fell by 14.6%, though the rate of decline narrowed slightly. Energy prices dropped by 3.8%, with the decline widening by 0.4 percentage points from the previous month; gasoline prices fell by an increased 8.4%. The core CPI, excluding food and energy, rose by 1.2% year-on-year, maintaining an increase of over 1% for the fourth consecutive month. Service prices increased by 0.6%, contributing approximately 0.25 percentage points to the year-on-year CPI rise. Within services, prices for household services rose by 1.2%, while rental prices fell by 0.3%. Prices for industrial consumer goods excluding energy increased by 2.5%, contributing about 0.63 percentage points to the year-on-year CPI increase. Specifically, the increase in gold jewelry prices widened further to 68.5%; price increases for household appliances and daily household necessities widened to 5.9% and 3.2%, respectively; while the declines in prices for fuel-powered and new energy passenger cars narrowed to 2.4% and 2.2%, respectively.
The PPI rose by 0.2% month-on-month, marking the third consecutive month of increase, with the growth rate expanding by 0.1 percentage points from the previous month.
The main characteristics of the month-on-month PPI performance this month were as follows: First, improved supply and demand dynamics drove price increases in some sectors. The ongoing effects of capacity governance in key industries and comprehensive rectification of market competition order continued to show results. Prices in coal mining and washing, and coal processing rose by 1.3% and 0.8% month-on-month, respectively, marking five consecutive months of increase. Prices for lithium-ion battery manufacturing increased by 1.0%, and cement manufacturing prices rose by 0.5%, both rising for three consecutive months. Prices for new energy vehicle manufacturing turned from a 0.2% decline last month to a 0.1% increase. Seasonal demand increases drove prices in gas production and supply, and production and supply of electric power and heat power up by 1.2% and 1.0%, respectively. Prices for down processing and wool textile dyeing and finishing increased by 1.2% and 1.0%, respectively.
Second, imported factors led to divergent price trends in domestic non-ferrous metals and petroleum-related industries. Rising international non-ferrous metal prices drove month-on-month increases of 3.7% and 2.8% in domestic non-ferrous metal mining and processing, and smelting and pressing, respectively. Specifically, prices for silver smelting, gold smelting, copper smelting, and aluminum smelting rose by 13.5%, 4.8%, 4.6%, and 0.9%, respectively. Falling international crude oil prices led to domestic petroleum extraction and refined petroleum product manufacturing prices declining by 2.3% and 0.9%, respectively.
The PPI fell by 1.9% year-on-year, with the rate of decline narrowing by 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. The continuous effects of various domestic macroeconomic policies led to positive price changes in some industries.
First, the deepening advancement of building a unified national market led to a continued narrowing of the year-on-year price declines in related industries. With continuous optimization of market competition order, the year-on-year declines in prices for coal mining and washing, lithium-ion battery manufacturing, and photovoltaic equipment and component manufacturing narrowed by 2.9, 1.2, and 0.4 percentage points, respectively, from the previous month. These sectors have seen their declines narrow for 5, 4, and 9 consecutive months, respectively.
Second, the cultivation and growth of new quality productive forces drove year-on-year price increases in related industries. Industries related to the digital economy showed strong development momentum, production of new raw and new materials grew rapidly, and green transformation continued to empower development. Prices for external storage devices and components rose by 15.3%, biomass liquid fuel prices increased by 9.0%, prices for graphite and other carbon product manufacturing rose by 5.5%, finished integrated circuit prices increased by 2.4%, prices for the comprehensive utilization of waste resources industry rose by 0.9%, and prices for service consumer robot manufacturing increased by 0.4%.
Third, the effective release of consumption potential drove year-on-year price increases in relevant industries. The in-depth implementation of special campaigns to boost consumption, along with relatively rapid growth in cultural, sports, and quality-oriented consumption, led to a 23.3% price increase for arts, crafts, and ceremonial article manufacturing. Prices for sports ball manufacturing rose by 4.0%, prices for traditional Chinese musical instrument manufacturing increased by 2.0%, and prices for nutritional food manufacturing rose by 1.5%.
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