Beijing: China said on Friday the inflationary pressure on its economy is easing as consumer price index, the main gauge of the rate of price rise, has dropped to 3.2 per cent in February, the lowest in 21 months.
China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced in Beijing that the country's consumer price index (CPI) climbed by 3.2 per cent year-on-year in February, marking the lowest growth rate since June 2010.
February's CPI growth declined from the 4.5 per cent increase seen in January, when traditional Chinese Lunar New Year shopping spree boosted retail prices.
In the first two months of this year, the CPI grew 3.9 per cent compared to same period last year. On a monthly basis, CPI dipped 0.1 per cent in February, the NBS said.
Food prices, which have nearly one-third of the weight in the calculation of China's CPI, increased 6.2 per cent last month year-on-year. Food price growth slowed from January's 10.5 per cent rise, official media here reported.
China's Producer Price Index (PPI), main gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, remained unchanged in February from a year earlier, Xinhua news agency quoted NBS as saying.
The zero-growth reading, the lowest since December 2009, further eased from 0.7 per cent in January, after hitting a 31-month high of 7.5 per cent in July last year, NBS data showed.
On a month-on-month basis, the country's February PPI grew 0.1 per cent from January, the NBS said. Meanwhile, producer purchase prices grew one per cent year on year in February and 0.1 per cent from a month ago, it said.
In the first two months of this year, the PPI climbed 0.4 per cent year on year, while producer purchase prices gained 1.5 per cent during the period, the NBS said.
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