China says inflation down in September

Limping back to economic recovery, China’s inflation went down in September, latest data by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.

The consumer price index (CPI) rose to 1.7% year-on-year last month, narrowing by 0.7 point from August's rise.

The country witnessed food prices rise to 7.9% year-on-year in September, down 3.3 points compared to August.

The overall drop in some food and crude oil prices brought the inflation down.

Senior NBS statistician Dong Lijuan said the market conditions were “generally orderly”.

China saw vegetable prices rose 17.2% in September while egg, chicken, and duck prices went down by 17.7%, 9.1%, and 4.7%, respectively, on a yearly basis, as did fruit prices, which were down by 6.9%.

The data also showed pork price rose by 25.5% in September but the rate of rise was 27.1 points lower than August.

“The continued recovery of hog production and the increase of pork supply have caused pork prices to drop in some provinces and regions, which is a main reason for the drop of CPI," Liu Xuezhi, an economist at the country's Bank of Communications, told Chinese daily Global Times.

Meanwhile, China has surpassed North America, becoming the largest box office market in the world. The data showed China's box office this year totaled $1.93 billion at midnight Wednesday.

Early this week, figures released by China showed the country witnessed a brisk growth in imports and exports last month, indicating fast post-pandemic recovery in domestic economic activity.

The country’s imports increased by 13.2% in September from a year earlier.

The latest figure follows a 2.1% contraction in August and marks the first rise in imports since June.