Consumer Market Maintains Stability in May, Data Shows

The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics indicates that China's consumer market operated with overall stability in May.

The consumer price index (CPI) registered a month-on-month decline of 0.1% while posting a year-on-year increase of 1.2%.

Excluding food and energy costs, the core CPI rose 1.1% compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the producer price index (PPI) for manufactured goods saw a month-on-month increase of 0.5% and a year-on-year rise of 3.9%.

The year-on-year PPI growth accelerated by 1.1 percentage points from the previous month, influenced by heightened demand in certain domestic sectors and the transmission of volatility in international commodity prices.

On a monthly basis, the 0.1% dip in CPI was primarily driven by changes in energy and service prices.

Domestic gasoline prices, which had surged by 12.6% in April, fell by 0.3% in May, leading to a shift in overall energy prices from a 5.7% increase to a 0.1% decrease.

Service prices also turned from a 0.5% increase to a 0.1% decline, influenced by a seasonal drop in travel demand following the May Day holiday period.

Year-on-year, the CPI increase held steady at 1.2%, matching April's rate.

Within this figure, prices for industrial consumer goods rose by 3.9%, accelerating by 0.4 percentage points from the previous month.

Gasoline prices, affected by a low comparison base from the same period last year, saw their year-on-year increase expand significantly to 23.5%.

Service prices increased by 0.8%, though the rate of increase slowed by 0.1 percentage points.

Travel service price inflation moderated to 2.8%, down 0.9 percentage points, while prices for other services remained broadly stable.

Food prices declined by 1.7%, with the pace of decrease widening by 0.1 percentage points.

The monthly PPI increase of 0.5% represented a slowdown of 1.2 percentage points from April.

Key factors behind the PPI movements included price increases in sectors benefiting from industrial restructuring and upgrades, seasonal demand boosts for certain industries, and the impact of international crude oil price fluctuations, which caused prices in related domestic sectors to either fall or see slower growth.

Industries such as non-ferrous metal mining and dressing, non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling, and coal mining and washing recorded notable price increases.