China's CPI up 2 pct in 2022

BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2 percent year on year in 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

In December, China's CPI rose 1.8 percent year on year, up from 1.6 percent in November.

Prices were generally stable in December thanks to China's efforts to better coordinate epidemic response and economic and social development, and the country's adoption of measures to ensure market supply and stabilize prices, said Dong Lijuan, chief statistician with the NBS. 　　

On a monthly basis, the CPI remained flat in December. Food prices reversed the 0.8-percent fall in November to rise 0.5 percent month on month, raising the monthly consumer inflation by about 0.09 percentage points, according to the NBS data.

Specifically, the price of pork, a staple meat in China, fell 8.7 percent in December from the previous month, due to increased supply.

However, pork prices still hiked 22.2 percent year on year, narrowing by 12.2 percentage points from the previous month.

Prices of fresh vegetables and fruit rose 7 percent and 4.7 percent from November, respectively, due to seasonal factors.

Non-food prices dipped 0.2 percent month on month in December. Driven by lower international oil prices, domestic gasoline and diesel prices dropped 6.1 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, from November.

Thursday's data also showed that China's producer price index, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, slid 0.7 percent year on year in December.