China Consumer Inflation Edges up in May

BEIJING – China's consumer inflation accelerated moderately in May, as declines in food prices weighed less on the price index than in recent months while non-food prices remained elevated, official data showed Friday.

China's consumer price index increased 1.5% in May from a year earlier, compared with a 1.2% gain in April, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Food prices declined 1.6% year over year, compared with a 3.5% drop in April. Non-food prices grew 2.3% year over year, compared with 2.4% year-over-year growth in April.

The key inflation reading matched a 1.5% gain in the CPI forecast by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

On a month-over-month basis, the CPI fell 0.1% in May from a month earlier. In April, it edged up 0.1% from the previous month.

Beijing hopes to keep inflation under about 3% this year.

China's producer prices rose for a ninth straight month in May from a year earlier though the pace of gains slowed for a third month in a row.

The producer price index climbed 5.5% in May compared with a 6.4% on-year increase in April.

The reading for factory-gate prices also matched a forecast for a 5.5% increase by the economists.

The PPI decreased 0.3% in May from a month earlier. In April, it dropped 0.4% from the preceding month.

Write to Liyan Qi at liyan.qi@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 08, 2017 22:04 ET (02:04 GMT)