China's CPI down 0.5% in November, due to energy prices fall

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, edged down 0.5 percent year on year in November, National Bureau of Statistics data showed Saturday.

NBS statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the fall to factors such as the decrease in prices of food and energy in November.

The year-on-year CPI reading for November narrowed by 0.3 percentage points compared to October as energy prices became a main drag. Energy price decrease contributed 0.19 percentage points to the CPI decline in the month, Dong said.

Food prices were down 4.2 percent year on year, with the pace of decrease rising by 0.2 percentage points, pork prices went down 31.8 percent year on year, while prices for eggs, edible oil, beef, mutton, as well as poultry and aquatic products, fell by between 1.1 percent and 10.5 percent, the data showed.

However, the core CPI, deducting food and energy prices, went up 0.6 percent year on year last month as the pace of increase stayed unchanged compared with October, maintaining a moderate increase, Dong said.

The data showed that non-food prices went up 0.4 percent year on year last month, of which prices of services edged up by 1 percent, while prices for clothing rose 1.4 percent.

On a monthly basis, the CPI also dipped 0.5 percent in November from the previous month, the data showed. During the month, food prices went down 0.9 percent while non-food prices fell 0.4 percent, the data showed.

Dong said that the month-on-month decrease was mainly due to the impact of warmer weather, sufficient supply of agricultural products, falling international oil prices, and a seasonal decline in consumer demand for travel and other services.

The average CPI from January to November increased 0.3 percent year on year, the NBS data showed.

Saturday's data also showed that the country's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 3 percent year on year in November.

On a monthly basis, the November PPI fell 0.3 percent, affected by factors such as the fall in international oil prices and weak market demand for some industrial products, Dong said.