China’s factory price drop eases, consumer prices plunge

November had seen China’s factory gate prices decline at a slower pace, indicating that the country’s economy made a mild rebound from the coronavirus drag. However, weak food prices heavily weighed on consumer prices, recording their first drop in over a decade.

The producer price index (PPI) plunged 1.5% year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday. The figure came milder than the 2.1% drop seen in October and lower than the 1.8% decline expected by analysts in a Reuters survey.

After advancing 0.5% in October, the consumer price index (CPI) surprisingly dropped 0.5% in November from a year ago. The decrease came as the very first decline the index had recorded since October 2009. In addition to this, analysts in a Reuters poll made no changes in their forecast since the latest reading was lower than any forecast in the survey.