China’s producer prices dip in December



15 January 2018

China’s producer price inflation eased in December on government restrictions for polluting industries, official data showed Wednesday.

The producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 4.9% year on year in December, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

It was down from growth of 5.8% recorded in November, according to the bureau. On a monthly basis, it was up 0.8%.

For the whole year of 2017, PPI climbed 6.3% from one year earlier, compared with a 1.4-percent drop in 2016, ending the declining trend for the past five years.

As northern China enters its winter heating season, the government has increased efforts to tackle smog, asking steel mills and smelters to halt production to curb pollution. Those measures cooled demand for industrial raw materials.

Compared with a month ago, factory-gate prices increased at a slower pace in oil and natural gas developers, while ferrous metal producers and the coal mining industry saw prices drop. Costs increased in gas production and supply industries.

Compared with a year ago, prices in oil and natural gas extraction increased by 20.1%, followed by 18.5% for ferrous metal smelting and 12.3% for oil processing.

The PPI figures came alongside the release of the consumer price index, which rose 1.8% year on year in December, up from November’s 1.7%.