China Consumer Inflation Unexpectedly Slower in July

China's consumer inflation unexpectedly slowed in July on continued weakness in food prices and cheaper non-food items, official data showed Wednesday.

China's consumer price index in July increased 1.4% from a year earlier, compared with a 1.5% gain in June, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Food prices declined 1.1% on year, compared with a 1.2% drop in June. Non-food prices grew 2.0% on year, compared with 2.2% on-year increase in June.

The key inflation reading undershot a 1.5% gain in the CPI forecast by a Wall Street Journal poll of economists.

On a month-over-month basis, the CPI rose 0.1% in July. In June, it edged down 0.2% from the previous month.

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

The producer price index climbed 5.5% in July compared with a 5.5% on-year increase in June.

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

The PPI increased 0.2% in July from a month earlier. In June, it dropped 0.2% from the preceding month.

-- Grace Zhu

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 08, 2017 22:02 ET (02:02 GMT)