China's CPI up 2.5 pct in August

A customer shops at a supermarket in Congtai District of Handan, north China's Hebei Province, Aug. 10, 2022. (Photo by Hao Qunying/Xinhua)

BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.5 percent year on year in August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

On a monthly basis, August's CPI remained stable, reversing the 0.5-percent rise in July to edge down 0.1 percent, thanks to efforts to contain COVID-19 and extreme weather impacts, as well as efforts to ensure sufficient supply and stable prices, noted Dong Lijuan, a senior statistician with the NBS.

Food prices went up 0.5 percent month on month, which raised the monthly consumer inflation by about 0.1 percentage points.

Specifically, the price of pork, a staple meat in China, inched up 0.4 percent in August, contracting 25.2 percentage points over the previous month, as hog slaughter activities returned to normal and consumer demand saw a seasonal weakening, Dong said.

Non-food prices rose 1.7 percent year on year, lifting the yearly consumer inflation by about 1.38 percentage points.

The prices of gasoline and diesel reported year-on-year growths of 20.2 percent and 21.9 percent, respectively.

The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, gained 0.8 percent year on year in August, staying flat from the growth pace logged in July.

Friday's data also showed that China's producer price index, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went up 2.3 percent year on year in August.