China’s factory-gate prices growth slowed in July, as lower domestic fuel prices eased cost pressures triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran, while high temperatures dragged manufacturing.
The producer price index (PPI) rose by 3.5 per cent year on year last month, compared with 4.1 per cent in June, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Sunday.
The reading fell short of a projection of 3.98 per cent from economists polled by financial data provider Wind. On a month-on-month basis, the PPI fell 0.7 per cent, following a decline of 0.3 per cent in June.
The national consumer price index (CPI), a major gauge of inflation, rose 0.5 per cent year on year, the slowest pace since January, compared with 1 per cent in June. The reading fell short of the 0.85 per cent projected in the Wind survey.
On a month-on-month basis, the CPI fell 0.1 from June. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.3 per cent.
Dong Lijuan, a senior statistician at the NBS, said that the impact of international factors affected relevant industries in China. For example, the PPI for oil extraction and refinery dropped 11.8 per cent and 8.4 per cent, respectively, from last month.
