A customer chooses vegetables at a supermarket in Handan, Hebei province, on Oct 15. [Photo/Xinhua]
China's consumer inflation accelerated to its fastest pace in nearly two years in November, while factory-gate prices continued to decline, official data showed on Wednesday.
The country's consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, rose by 0.7 percent year-on-year in November, following a 0.2 percent rise in October, marking the highest level since February last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
On a month-on-month basis, the CPI declined 0.1 percent in November, versus a 0.2 percent rise in October, the NBS data showed.
"The year-on-year increase widened mainly because food prices shifted from a decline to a rise, while the month-on-month decrease was primarily due to seasonal declines in service prices," said Dong Lijuan, an NBS statistician.
NBS data showed that the core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is deemed a better gauge of supply-demand conditions, rose by 1.2 percent year-on-year in November, unchanged from October.
Meanwhile, China's producer price index – which measures factory-gate prices – fell by 2.2 percent year-on-year in November, widening from a 2.1 percent drop in October, according to the NBS.
Dong noted that the widening decline in factory-gate prices was mainly due to a higher comparison base from the same period last year.
On a month-on-month basis, the PPI increased by 0.1 percent in November, the same figure in October, according to the NBS.
