NBS: China Feb CPI falls 0.7%, PPI slips 2.2% YoY

Last month, China's CPI registered its first on-year drop since February last year, mainly due to the slowdown of people's consumption post the eight-day Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday that ended on February 4, according to Dong Lijuan, a senior statistician with NBS.

The CNY holiday in 2024 fell in mid-February, leading the food and service prices to rise significantly at that time, which created a higher base for comparison as this year's CNY ran from January 28 to February 4, Dong noted.

Under such circumstances, Chinese food prices fell 3.3% on year and 0.5% on month in February, NBS data showed. "If excluding the impact of the different months of the Chinese New Year, CPI rose by 0.1% on year in February," Dong added.

In addition to the holiday impact, the warm weather last month also provided a favorable environment for the cultivation and transportation of fresh vegetables, so domestic vegetable prices softened amid ample supply, Dong observed.

Meanwhile, the prices for airfare and tourism declined 22.6% and 9.6% respectively on year as people generally completed their travel at the beginning of last month, according to NBS data.

Excluding food and energy, China's core inflation inched down 0.1% on year and 0.2% on month respectively in February, the data showed.

On the other hand, China's PPI stayed on a downtrend last month, since the recovery of demand among downstream industries post the national holiday was still at a slow pace, according to NBS.

For example, Chinese prices for steelmaking and fabrication in February decreased 0.2% on month and dropped by 10.6% on year, while those for coal mining and processing went down 3.3% on month and slumped 12.5% on year, the NBS data showed.

During January-February this year, China's CPI dipped 0.1% compared with the same period last year, while the PPI fell 2.2% on year, according to NBS statistics.

Written by Anthea Shi, shihui@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com