MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Inflation in China falls 0,2% in February; pork prices drop 14,9% year on year

During the spring festival, local entertainment activities drove up film ticket price by 13% in February compared with January

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, fell 0.2% in February from a year earlier, paving the way for China's steady economic recovery in the post-COVID era as the price trend kept stable, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.

The decline of CPI narrowed compared with a 0.3% drop in January, due to rises in food prices and transport costs during the Spring Festival season which fell in mid-February, pointed out NBS on Wednesday.

During the festival, local entertainment activities drove up film ticket price by 13% in February compared with January, according to Dong Lijuan, senior statistician at the NBS.

Pork prices, which have risen four times since 2018 when the African Swine Fever hit provinces in China, dived 14.9% year-on-year, dragging the CPI down 0.39 percentage points and showing China's hog production is recovering.

The Ministry of Commerce said pork prices in China fell from 47.47 Yuan per kilogram in January to 38.59 Yuan in February, diving 18.7%.

Anyhow, China's consumer prices remained stable during the Spring Festival holidays, Liu Xuezhi, a senior macroeconomics expert at the Bank of Communications revealed.

“It also shows China's economy is recovering gradually with improving demand from the service sector which saw mild rise in prices in February compared with a month before,” Liu noted.

Meanwhile, industrial expansion also showed the same trend as seen from the rising price of Producer Price Index. PPI, which measures factory-gate prices, rose by 1.7% year-on-year in January, 0.8% month-on-month, according to NBS.