CPI Kept Rising Modestly in H1
Year:2017 ISSUE:15
COLUMN:ECONOMY AND BUSINESS
Click:329    DateTime:Aug.11,2017
CPI Kept Rising Modestly in H1

China’s CPI for H1 2017 was up 1.4% YoY, 0.7 percentage points less than for H1 last year. In detail, CPI was up 2.5% YoY in January, while only 0.8% in February, and it became stronger again in March and April, up 0.9% and 1.2%, respectively. It was up 1.5% in both May and June. In general, China’s CPI kept rising modestly in H1 2017.
The growth was attributed mainly to increasing prices of some industrial products and services. For instance, non-food prices were up 2.3% YoY in H1 2017, pushing CPI up by 1.83 percentage points. Because of higher consumer demand and rising labor costs, some services became more expensive: prices of medical services were up 5.2% YoY, those of tourism services were up 4.1% YoY, while those of education services were up 3.3% YoY, which together contributed 0.53 percentage points to CPI growth.
Turning now to the PPI, it was up 6.6% YoY in the first half of 2017, in sharp contrast to the fall of 3.9% YoY registered in H1 2016. By quarters, it was up 7.4% YoY in Q1, the biggest improvement since Q4 2008. Production material prices for H1 2017 were up 8.8% YoY, resulting in a PPI growth of 6.4 percentage points, constituting around 97% of the total increment.