China’s headline consumer inflation recovered in December after dropping into negative territory in the previous month for the first time in 11 years, data released on Monday showed, reported the South China Morning Post.
China’s official consumer price index (CPI) rose to 0.2% in December from a year earlier, from minus 0.5% in November, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This was above with the median results of a Bloomberg survey of analysts which had predicted a rise to 0%.
November’s reading was the lowest level since October 2009, when it also reached minus 0.5%, said the SCMP.
“Ahead of New Year’s Day and the Spring Festival, consumer demand increased, and [animal] feed costs also rose,” said Dong Lijuan, a senior statistician at the NBS, with higher feed costs putting upwards pressure on meat prices.