SIMIC

 China’s consumer inflation eased in April on falling food prices as the country fast-tracks restoration of economic activities amid consolidated epidemic containment efforts, official data showed on May 12.

China’s consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, grew 3.3 percent year-on-year last month, moderating from the 4.3-percent gain in March, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices went down 0.9 percent. Food prices, which account for nearly one-third of weighting in China’s CPI, dropped 3 percent last month.

In breakdown, vegetable prices fell 8 percent from March over rising supplies as the weather warms, and pork prices continued to retreat amid recovering hog production. Prices of the staple meat in China dropped 7.6 percent in April from a month earlier.

Compared with the same period last year, food prices remained the main driver of consumer inflation in April, while its growth rate tapered from March to 14.8 percent.

In the first four months of this year, CPI went up 4.5 percent year-on-year on average.

The data released on May 12 also showed China’s producer price index, which measures inflation at the factory gates, fell 3.1 percent year-on-year last month.