China Consumer Inflation Edges up in May

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)