China’s April 2012 CPI up by 3.4% year on year

11 May 2012 06:28  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--China’s April consumer price index (CPI) – a gauge of inflation - fell by 0.1 percentage points from March and rose by 3.4% year on year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Friday.

The country’s producer price index (PPI), which is a gauge of wholesale prices, declined by 0.7% year on year, hitting a low since January 2010, NBS data showed.

China’s CPI in the second and third quarters are expected to keep sliding, before rebounding in the fourth quarter, said the chief economist at China’s Bank of Communications, Lian Ping.

“We forecast the average CPI growth in 2012 will be at around 3.3%,” added Lian.

The People's Bank of China, the country’s central bank, said China will continue with its monetary policy to stabilise the economy and to meet the capital needs for substantial economic development for 2012.

China’s economic growth has been on a downtrend as it softened to 8.1% in the first quarter of 2012, down from 8.9% in the previous quarter, which was itself the weakest expansion in two and a half years.

The downtrend in the economic growth figures were influenced by the country’s macro policies which were aimed at stabilising growth and restructuring the economy, said the deputy dean of the School of Economics at the People’s University of China, Liu Yuanchun.

By: Rachel Yang

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