(ECNS) -- China's consumer price index (CPI), a key gauge of inflation, rose 1.0% year on year in June, down 0.2 percentage point from the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday. In the first half of the year, the CPI rose an average of 1.0% year on year.
Dong Lijuan, chief statistician at the NBS, said prices of industrial consumer goods rose 2.9% year on year in June, down 1.0 percentage point from the previous month, driven by international factors. Gold jewelry and gasoline prices rose 28.1% and 17.0 percent, respectively.
Food prices fell 1.6% year on year in June, with the decline narrowing by 0.1 percentage point from a month earlier. Pork prices fell 15.9%, with the decline narrowing by 0.2 percentage point from May and dragging down the year-on-year CPI by about 0.30 percentage point.
On a month-on-month basis, the CPI fell 0.3% in June. Gold jewelry and gasoline prices fell 8.7 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively, from the previous month.
Food prices fell 0.4% month on month, with pork and aquatic product prices down 0.8% and 0.6 percent, respectively, together dragging down the month-on-month CPI by about 0.02 percentage point.
Wen Bin, chief economist at China Minsheng Bank, said China's price levels have moved out of the low range this year, with the overall trend expected to improve in the second half.
He said pork prices are expected to gradually bottom out and rebound, shifting from a drag on food prices to a source of support. The number of breeding sows did not fall significantly until last October, meaning hog supply will decline around the middle of this year, while a series of demand peaks is expected in the second half.
On energy prices, Wen noted that international oil prices dropped sharply after the U.S.-Iran agreement was reached, but have recently fluctuated and rebounded. However, as de-escalation serves the interests of all parties, oil prices are unlikely to return to this year's highs.
(By Tang Yuxian)
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