China Nov CPI +1.7% on Year; Market Expected +1.8%

China's consumer inflation eased in November on bigger falls in food prices, official data showed Saturday.

China's consumer-price index increased 1.7% in November from a year earlier, compared with a 1.9% gain in October, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Food prices fell 1.1% from a year earlier, declining for the 10th-straight month, after dropping 0.4% in October. Nonfood prices grew 2.5% on year, compared with 2.4% on-year growth in October.

The key inflation reading undershot a 1.8% gain forecast by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

Policy makers in Beijing hope to keep inflation under about 3% this year.

On a month-over-month basis, the CPI was unchanged in November from a month earlier. In October, the index rose 0.1% from the previous month.

The producer-price index climbed 5.8% in November, down from a 6.9% rise in October. The reading for factory-gate prices came in matched economists' forecast.

The PPI increased 0.5% in November from a month earlier. In October, it rose 0.7% from the preceding month.

Write to Grace Zhu at grace.zhu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 08, 2017 20:56 ET (01:56 GMT)