China's PPI down 0.7 pct in December

BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 0.7 percent year on year in December 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

The decrease was narrowed by 0.6 percentage points from that registered in November. On a monthly basis, China's PPI edged down 0.5 percent in December, according to the NBS.

The narrowed year-on-year decrease in December was due to the lower comparison base in the same period of the previous year, while declining oil prices led to the monthly PPI decrease in December, said senior NBS statistician Dong Lijuan.

China's PPI went up 4.1 percent year on year in 2022, NBS data revealed.

The PPI of the oil and gas extraction industry dropped by 8.3 percent month on month as a result of declining international crude oil prices, according to the NBS.

The PPI of the agricultural and sideline food processing industry edged down 1 percent month on month, while that of computer communications and other electronic equipment manufacturing industries declined 0.2 percent month on month.

Thursday's data also showed that China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.8 percent year on year in December 2022. For the whole of 2022, CPI rose 2 percent year on year.