Beijing January 9 2025: China’s consumer prices barely rose in 2024 while factory-gate prices extended into a second straight year of declines, official data showed on Thursday, weighed by persistently weak domestic demand.
A combination of job insecurity, a prolonged housing downturn, debt and tariff threats from the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has hit demand, even as Beijing ramps up stimulus.
The full-year consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.2%, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed, in line with the previous year’s pace and well below the official target of around 3% for last year, suggesting inflation missed annual targets for the 13th straight year.
In December, the CPI crept up 0.1% year-on-year, slowing from November’s 0.2% increase and the weakest pace since April. That was in line with forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists.
However, core inflation, which excludes volatile food and fuel prices, nudged up slightly to 0.4% last month from 0.3% in November, the highest in five months.
Upstream, the producer price index fell 2.3% year-on-year in December, slower than the 2.5% fall in November and an expected 2.4% decline. Factory-gate prices have remained deflationary for 27 straight months.
The pickup in core consumer prices and the slower pace of factory deflation suggested “policy stimulus is providing some support to demand and prices,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, Head of China Economics.
