China inflation cools, price pressures ease

Increases in China’s prices at factory gates stabilized in July while consumer price gains eased, official data showed on Wednesday, suggesting that the surge in industrial inflation over the past year is subsiding, according to Caixin. The producer price index (PPI) rose 5.5% year-on-year last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said. That was the same rate as in May and June, and down from an eight-and-a-half-year high of 7.8% in February that was driven by a surge in global commodity prices and a recovery in China’s economy. On a month-on-month basis, however, the PPI increased by 0.2%, returning to positive territory after falling for three straight months. The consumer price index rose 1.4% year-on-year, marginally lower than the 1.5% pace in June, as food prices continued to fall and nonfood costs increased the least this year. But the CPI rose 0.1% from June, the first month-on-month gain since April.