Pedestrians pass stores in the Datang district of Guangzhou, China, on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023. Photographer Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
BEIJING: China’s consumer prices rose at the slowest pace in four months in October while producer price deflation deepened, data shows last Saturday, even as Beijing doubled down on stimulus to support the sputtering economy.
In its latest stimulus measures, the country’s top legislative body approved a 10 trillion yuan (US$1.4 trillion) package on Friday to ease local government “hidden debt” burdens, rather than directly injecting money into the world’s second-biggest economy, as some investors had hoped.
Analysts say the package will likely do little to boost economic activity, demand and prices in the near term.
The consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.3% from a year earlier last month, slowing from September’s 0.4% rise and marking the lowest since June, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed, short of the 0.4% increase forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.
However, core inflation, excluding volatile food and fuel prices, rose 0.2% in October, accelerating from 0.1% in September.
“Due to the Golden Week holiday in October, the effect of stimulus policies on promoting domestic demand issued since late September is not obvious yet,” said JLL chief economist Bruce Pang.
He expected CPI to maintain an upward trend while core inflation remains mild, opening up space for the authorities to cut interest rates further early next year.
China’s central bank in late September unveiled the most aggressive monetary support measures since the Covid-19 pandemic to revive economic growth.
The highly anticipated stimulus plan passed last Friday by the standing committee of the National People’s Congress may leave investors who speculated on a fiscal bazooka disappointed, as it fell short of expectations for strong policy steps to boost consumption and reflate the economy.
Finance Minister Lan Foan indicated on Friday that more stimulus was coming, telling a press conference that tax policies to support the housing market would come soon and that the authorities were accelerating the work of recapitalising banks.
Some analysts said Beijing may want to retain some economic ammunition until Donald Trump resumes the US presidency in January. — Reuters
