In 2025, all regions and departments earnestly implemented the decisions and deployments of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, deeply pursued more proactive and effective macroeconomic policies, and advanced the construction of a unified national market. Consumer prices remained generally stable, the increase in core CPI expanded, and producer prices rebounded from low levels.
Consumer prices showed an overall stable and improving trend. The CPI was flat year-on-year for the full year, with monthly fluctuations trending upward. In 2025, the domestic consumer market operated generally steadily, gradually improving. Influenced by the timing shift of the Spring Festival, the CPI experienced significant year-on-year fluctuations in January and February, rising 0.5% in January and falling 0.7% in February. From March to July, the operation was generally stable, with the CPI's year-on-year increase or decrease ranging between -0.1% and 0.1%. In August and September, affected by factors such as a higher comparison base from the same period last year, the year-on-year decline in CPI expanded. Starting in October, as various policies to expand domestic demand and promote consumption were intensified, consumer demand continued to recover. The CPI's year-on-year change turned from negative to positive and continued to rebound, with the increase expanding to 0.8% in December, the highest level since March 2023.
The significant declines in food and energy prices were the main factors pulling down the CPI. Food prices remained at low levels, falling 1.5% for the full year of 2025, with the rate of decline widening by 0.9 percentage points compared to the previous year, impacting the CPI by approximately -0.27 percentage points. Within food categories, due to generally higher temperatures and relatively minor adverse weather impacts, fresh vegetable prices shifted from a 5.0% increase the previous year to a 3.9% decrease, affecting the CPI by approximately -0.09 percentage points. With continued increases in live hog supply, pork prices shifted from a 7.7% increase the previous year to a 6.1% decrease, affecting the CPI by approximately -0.08 percentage points. As the layer hen inventory remained at a historically high level, egg prices fell 8.5%, with the rate of decline widening by 3.4 percentage points compared to the previous year, affecting the CPI by approximately -0.05 percentage points. With continued optimization and reduction in breeding scale, the declines in beef and mutton prices narrowed significantly, falling 1.1% and 1.5% respectively for the full year. Prices for tubers, aquatic products, and fresh fruit rose by 5.1%, 1.4%, and 1.2% respectively; prices of other food items remained basically stable. The decline in energy prices widened, falling 3.3% for the full year of 2025, with the rate of decline widening by 3.2 percentage points compared to the previous year, affecting the CPI by approximately -0.25 percentage points. Among these, influenced by the volatile downturn in international crude oil prices, domestic gasoline and diesel prices fell by 7.2% and 7.8% respectively, with the rates of decline widening by 6.5 and 7.0 percentage points compared to the previous year.
Core CPI continued to rebound, maintaining a year-on-year increase of over 1% for four consecutive months from September to December. The monthly year-on-year increase in core CPI has been continuously rising since March 2025, maintaining an increase of over 1% for four consecutive months starting in September, and rising 1.2% in December. For the full year of 2025, core CPI rose 0.7%, with the rate of increase expanding by 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous year. Prices of industrial consumer goods excluding energy rose significantly, with the monthly year-on-year increase expanding for eight consecutive months starting in May; for the full year of 2025, they rose 1.1%. Among these, gold jewelry prices surged 43.2%, with the rate of increase expanding by 21.1 percentage points compared to the previous year, hitting a record high. Prices for recreational durable goods and clothing rose 1.9% and 1.7% respectively, with both rates of increase expanding. Prices for communication tools and household appliances shifted from decreases of 1.7% and 1.6% the previous year to increases of 0.6% and 1.8% respectively. Prices for fuel-powered cars and new energy cars fell 3.5% and 3.1% respectively, with the rates of decline narrowing for both. Service prices rose moderately, increasing 0.5% for the full year of 2025. Among these, household service prices rose 1.9%, with the rate of increase expanding slightly. Prices for medical services and education services rose 1.4% and 1.0% respectively, with the rates of increase slightly retreating. Airfare and hotel accommodation prices fell 2.3% and 1.5% respectively.
Producer prices showed an overall trend of rebounding from low levels. The PPI declined for the full year, showing a trend of narrowing year-on-year declines in the second half. In 2025, the PPI fell 2.6% year-on-year, with the rate of decline narrowing by 0.2 percentage points compared to both the first half and the first three quarters. On a monthly basis, from January to July, influenced by factors such as weak demand in some sectors, externally imported price transmission, and uncertainties in international trade, the PPI's month-on-month change remained negative, and the year-on-year decline gradually expanded. Since August, with the deepened advancement of the unified national market construction and the rapid development of emerging industries, the PPI's month-on-month decline halted, turning to increase for three consecutive months starting in October. The year-on-year decline narrowed to 1.9% in December, the smallest decline since September 2024.
The optimization of domestic market competition order drove price rebounds from low levels in some industries. The ongoing effects of capacity governance in key industries and comprehensive rectification of low-price disorderly competition among enterprises continued to show results, improving the supply-demand structure in some sectors. Since August, prices in the coal mining and washing industry and coal processing industry shifted from declines to increases after nine consecutive months of decline, rising 1.3% and 0.8% respectively in December, driving a narrowing of the year-on-year declines. Month-on-month prices for the "new three" categories—photovoltaic equipment and component manufacturing, lithium-ion battery manufacturing, and new energy vehicle manufacturing—halted declines and turned to increases starting in September. Their full-year averages fell 9.2%, 4.5%, and 1.3% respectively, with the rates of decline narrowing by 4.2, 1.1, and 0.3 percentage points compared to the first half. Since October, cement manufacturing prices shifted to a month-on-month increase; although the full-year average still fell 4.3% year-on-year due to base effects, the rate of decline narrowed by 5.7 percentage points compared to 2024.
External factors caused divergent price trends in related domestic industries. In 2025, rising international non-ferrous metal prices, combined with the accelerated advancement of domestic electrification and green low-carbon transition, led to continuous price increases in non-ferrous metal-related industries. Prices in the non-ferrous metal mining and processing industry rose 17.2% year-on-year, while prices in the non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry rose 6.3%. Within this sector, gold smelting, silver smelting, and copper smelting prices rose 37.9%, 27.2%, and 6.8% respectively. Since the beginning of the year, the overall volatile downturn in international crude oil prices drove down prices in domestic petroleum-related industries, with petroleum extraction and refined petroleum product manufacturing prices falling 13.6% and 6.9% year-on-year respectively. Uncertainties in the international trade environment affected corporate export expectations, leading to price declines of 2.3%, 1.5%, and 1.3% year-on-year in the textile industry, general equipment manufacturing, and special equipment manufacturing respectively.
High-quality industrial development and transformation and upgrading drove price increases in some industries. In 2025, the domestic cultivation of new quality productive forces accelerated, and the intelligent, green, and integrated development of manufacturing continued to advance. Looking at specific industries, rapid artificial intelligence development drove year-on-year price increases of 2.0%, 0.7%, 0.1%, and 0.1% in integrated circuit packaging and testing series, external storage devices and components, control micro-motors, and wearable smart device manufacturing respectively. With the rapid growth of high-tech manufacturing, prices for aircraft manufacturing, specialized semiconductor device manufacturing, and CNC metal forming machine tools rose 2.0%, 0.5%, and 0.1% respectively. As the green low-carbon transition deepened, prices in the waste resource comprehensive utilization industry rose for four consecutive months after halting declines in September. The in-depth implementation of special actions to boost consumption and the continuous release of residents' demand for high-quality living led to year-on-year price increases in industries such as sports and cultural goods and health foods. Among these, prices for arts, crafts, and ceremonial article manufacturing rose 14.8%, prices for sports ball manufacturing rose 4.7%, and prices for health food manufacturing rose 0.6%.
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