China's June CPI up 1.9%, PPI 4.7%

China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.9 percent year-on-year in June, compared with 1.8 percent in May, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Tuesday.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI declined 0.1 percent.

Lower prices of fresh fruits and vegetables driven by abundant supply were the major reason for the CPI decline from May, said NBS statistician Sheng Guoqing.

Food prices slipped 0.8 percent month-on-month and climbed only 0.3 percent year-on-year.

The price of pork, China's staple meat, slumped 12.8 percent year-on-year, dragging down CPI growth by 0.32 percentage point. On a monthly basis, it registered a 1.1 percent increase after a three-month straight decline.

Non-food prices rose 2.2 percent from the same period last year, and 0.1 percent from May.

China is aiming to keep annual CPI growth at around 3 percent this year, the same as the target for 2017.

China's producer price index, which measures the cost of goods at the factory gate, rose 4.7 percent year-on-year in June, the NBS said.

The growth rate beat market expectations of 4.5 percent and was faster than the 4.1 percent rise in May, picking up pace for three consecutive months, according to the NBS data. month-on-month, the producer prices edged up 0.3 percent in June, slightly slower than the 0.4 percent rise in May.

Factory prices of both production materials and consumer goods grew faster, up 6.1 percent and 0.4 percent year-on-year respectively. The former contributed 4.61 percentage points to the total price increase.

Of all industrial sectors, oil and natural gas exploration saw the biggest price hike of 32.7 percent last month, followed by processing of oil, coal and other fuel at 19.9 percent, and ferrous metal smelting and pressing at 15.1 percent.

Sheng said the carry-over effects resulted in a rise of 4.1 percentage points in the PPI growth, with the remainder expansion of 0.6 percentage point generated by new factors.

In the first half of this year, the PPI increased 3.9 percent from the same period in 2017.