Consumer inflation in China posts slowest pace in past year

ANKARA

China's annual consumer inflation fell below expectations in February, hitting the past year's lowest rate, according to data from the statistical office on Thursday.

Consumer prices rose 1% year-on-year last month, the slowest pace of gain since February 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

The market forecast was for a 1.9% increase in the cost of living after a 2.1% annual rise in January.

Food inflation hit a nine-month low of 2.6% in February, easing from 6.2% in January.

On a monthly basis, China's consumer prices index unexpectedly fell 0.5% in February, bucking the market estimate of 0.2% growth.

Core annual consumer inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, fell to 0.6% in February from 1% in January.

The producer price index in February dropped 1.4% from last year, thanks to easing commodity prices.