China's CPI up 2.5% in October

BEIJING - China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.5 percent year-on-year in October, unchanged from that in September, data showed Friday.

That ended a rising streak for four consecutive months.

For the first 10 months, the CPI gained 2.1 percent from one year earlier, well below the government's target ceiling of 3 percent for 2018, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The data showed that food prices jumped 3.3 percent from October of last year. Prices of fresh fruits, vegetables and eggs climbed 11.5 percent, 10.1 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively, year-on-year. Pork prices fell 1.3 percent year-on-year, but climbed 1 percent from the previous month.

Non-food prices rose 2.4 percent from one year earlier, accelerating from a rise of 2.2 percent registered in September, according to the NBS.

Housing rent climbed 2.5 percent year-on-year, while prices for education and health care rose 3.2 percent and 2.6 percent respectively.

On a monthly basis, the CPI edged up 0.2 percent last month.

The producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 3.3 percent year-on-year in October, with the pace of growth slowing for a fourth month.

NBS statistician Sheng Guoqing said the carryover effect contributed 1.2 percentage points to the PPI growth, while new factors contributed 2.1 percentage points.

The prices of the means of production rose 4.2 percent year-on-year, contributing 3.18 percentage points to the PPI growth in October, according to the NBS.

Of major industrial sectors, producer prices in the sectors of chemical raw materials and products, nonmetal mineral products, ferrous metal processing, oil, coal and other fuel processing saw lower growth rate compared with those in September.

Friday's data also showed that the PPI rose 0.4 percent in October on a monthly basis, down from 0.6 percent registered in September.

Over the past 10 months, producer prices at the factory gate saw 3.9-percent rise year-on-year.