CHINA'S INFLATION SLOWS IN SEPTEMBER; PPI CONTINUES TO FALL

China's consumer price growth slowed in September on easing food price inflation and producer prices continued to ease, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Thursday.

Consumer prices advanced 1.7 percent on a yearly basis in September, slower than the 2.4 percent increase seen in August. This was also slower than the economists' forecast of 1.8 percent.

At the same time, core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, held steady at 0.5 percent in September.

Driven by a slowdown in pork price inflation, food prices grew 7.9 percent following 11.2 percent rise in August. Pork prices grew 25.5 percent but much slower than the 52.6 percent increase logged in the previous month.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices gained 0.2 percent versus a 0.4 percent rise a month ago. Another report from NBS showed that producer prices were down 2.1 percent annually after easing 2 percent in August. Economists had forecast an annual decrease of 1.8 percent.

With infrastructure-led stimulus still being ramped up and consumption rebounding, demand-side pressures on prices will probably strengthen in the coming months, pushing up underlying inflation, Julian Evans-Pritchard and Sheana Yue, economists at Capital Economics, said.

However, the economists noted that the rebound in core consumer price inflation will still leave it relatively subdued and food price inflation looks set to drop back further in the near-term as pork supply continues to recover from last year's African swine fever outbreak.

The benign outlook for inflation means it is unlikely to be a major driver of policy decisions in the coming quarters, the economists added.

News are provided by InstaForex