China's PPI extends recovery for third month, CPI stays mild

China's factory-gate prices rose further in May, extending their recovery for a third consecutive month, while consumer inflation remained mild, official data showed on Wednesday.

China's producer price index, which measures factory-gate prices, rose 3.9 percent year-on-year in May, up from a 2.8 percent increase in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Dong Lijuan, a statistician with the bureau, said the pickup in factory-gate inflation in May reflected stronger demand in some domestic industries and the pass-through effect of fluctuations in international commodity prices.

On a month-on-month basis, the PPI edged up 0.5 percent in May, slowing from a 1.7 percent increase in April.

Dong said AI adoption across industries and growing demand for computing power supported price increases in sectors such as non-ferrous metals, electrical machinery, and computer-related manufacturing.

Prices in computer, communications, and other electronic equipment manufacturing gained 0.6 percent month-on-month in May, led by increases of 2.9 percent in integrated circuit packaging and testing products and 1.9 percent in external storage devices and components, the NBS said.

Additionally, fluctuations in international crude oil prices also fed through to domestic oil-related sectors, causing some prices to reverse earlier gains or rise at a slower pace, Dong said.

In May, oil extraction prices fell 1.8 percent month-on-month, reversing a 24.1 percent rise in April, while prices in refined petroleum products manufacturing slipped 0.3 percent, compared with a 19 percent increase the previous month, NBS data showed.

China's consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, rose 1.2 percent from a year earlier in May, matching April's increase, according to the NBS.

Notably, industrial consumer goods prices rose 3.9 percent year-on-year in May, up from a 3.5 percent increase in April, contributing about 1.18 percentage points to the CPI's year-on-year growth, NBS data showed.

Food prices fell 1.7 percent year-on-year in May, with the decline widening by 0.1 percentage points from April and dragging down the CPI's year-on-year growth by about 0.30 percentage points, NBS data showed. Pork prices dropped 16.1 percent, with the decline deepening by 0.9 percentage points from April, according to the NBS.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI slipped 0.1 percent in May, reversing a 0.3 percent increase in April, NBS data showed. Dong said the monthly decline was largely attributable to changes in energy and services prices.

The core CPI — which excludes food and energy prices and is deemed a better gauge of supply-demand conditions — was up 1.1 percent year-on-year in May, NBS data showed.