- Consumer inflation decelerated for fourth straight month
- Persistent deflationary pressures threaten to curtail spending
China’s consumer inflation weakened further toward zero, decelerating for a fourth straight month in a setback for government efforts to stamp out deflation and revive demand with economic stimulus.
The consumer price index rose 0.1% in December from a year earlier, in line with the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Factory deflation extended into a 27th month, though the producer price index recorded a slower drop of 2.3%, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.
The persistence of deflationary pressures in China is in stark contrast to other major economies, with elevated inflation risks flagged by US Federal Reserve officials and euro-area price growth