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Here's what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
China Economic News
China's inflation fell to its slowest pace in seven months, in October, due to a high comparison base and softer consumer demand, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.
The country's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose by 2.1 percent year-on-year in October, a seven-month low, down from 2.8 percent in September, the NBS data showed.
Compared with a year ago, food prices increased 7 percent, down from 8.8 percent in September, as the comparison base rose, and vegetables, fruits and aquatic products came into the market in large numbers while consumer demand fell after the National Day holiday, the bureau said.
On a month-on-month basis, the CPI growth also slowed to 0.1 percent, compared with 0.3 percent in September.
The growth in core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is deemed as a better gauge of the supply-demand relationship in the economy, came in at 0.6 percent year-on-year, the same as a month earlier.
Meanwhile, China's producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, declined by 1.3 percent from a year ago in October, following a 0.9 percent rise in September, marking the first negative PPI growth in almost two years, according to the NBS.
The bureau mainly attributed the fall in producer prices to last year's high comparison base, adding that the PPI rose by 0.2 percent on a monthly basis in October as demand increased in some industries, following a 0.1 percent decline in September.
Affected by factors such as the fall in consumer demand after the holidays and the higher comparison base for the same period last year, the year-on-year CPI growth in October fell. Also affected by the high comparison base in the same period last year, PPI fell year-on-year for the first time since January 2021.
The National Bureau of Statistics released the national CPI (Consumer Price Index) and PPI (Producer Price Index) data for October on November 9. CPI increased by 2.1% year-on-year and 0.1% month-on-month. PPI changed from a 0.9% increase in the previous month to a decrease of 1.3% year-on-year, and a month-on-month decrease from a 0.1% decrease in the previous month to an increase of 0.2%.
The CPI growth rate fell back in October, with food prices maintaining high growth driven by pig prices, while non-food prices remained low due to the weak service industry. Among them, food prices increased by 7.0%, a decrease of 1.8 percentage points from the previous month. Non-food prices increased by 1.1%, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points from the previous month, of which service prices increased by 0.4%, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points from the previous month.
Experts said that the core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, has been sluggish and declining for a long time in the past. The core CPI continues to soften, indicating that effective social demand is still in the weak recovery stage, and effective demand is still weaker than the production side. The imbalance between supply and demand and internal and external risks may bring deflationary pressure.
In terms of PPI, demand in some industries increased in October, and the national PPI rose slightly month-on-month. However, affected by the high comparison base in the same period last year, the year-on-year increase turned to decrease. The month-on-month period ended with three consecutive months of negative growth and hit a half-year high. Among them, the price of means of production changed from an increase of 0.6% to a decrease of 2.5%; the price of means of living increased by 2.2%, an increase of 0.4 percentage points.
According to a research report, international oil prices and copper prices fell back in October, and coal prices also weakened after the peak season. Infrastructure and housing guarantee policies have driven ferrous metal prices to rebound. However, the shortage of coal and electricity in the same period of 2021 has brought a high base, dragging down the year-on-year increase in PPI.
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