MNI 5 Things: China CPI and PPI Rise Below Market Expectations

     BEIJING (MNI) - China's National Bureau of Statistics has released April's

consumer price index and producer price index data. MNI highlights five things

that deserve attention:

     - CPI rose 1.8% year-over-year in April, lower than the 1.9% median in a

MNI survey in which 19 forecasters were surveyed. This was the lowest since the

1.5% gain in January.

     - On a monthly basis, CPI declined 0.2%, a significant rebound from the

1.1% drop in March. This was due to much softer fall in food prices, down 1.9%

compared with a 4.2% drop in March, while non-food prices also saw a lower m/m

increase of 0.2%.

     - PPI rose 3.4% y/y, lower than the 3.5% median expectation in the MNI

survey. This was 0.3 percentage point higher than the growth in March.

     - As expected by MNI, the higher PPI growth in April was driven by higher

commodity prices. The NBS said price growth expanded in gasoline and natural gas

mining, ferrous and non-ferrous metal smelting and flattening, fuel processing

products, and chemical raw materials.

     - The month-over-month PPI drop was flat from March, down 0.2% -- the third

straight time the index has entered negative territory. It was last positive in

January at 0.3%.

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: iris.ouyang@marketnews.com

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86-10-8532-5998; email: beijing@marketnews.com

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