China's CPI maintains moderate growth in June

China's consumer inflation remained moderate in June, while factory-gate price growth accelerated for a fourth straight month, official data showed on Thursday.

China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.0 percent year-on-year in June, easing from a 1.2 percent increase in May, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Dong Lijuan, a statistician with the bureau, said consumer prices maintained moderate year-on-year growth in June.

Prices of industrial consumer goods rose 2.9 percent year-on-year, with the pace of growth easing by 1.0 percentage point from the previous month, contributing about 0.90 percentage points to the CPI increase, NBS data showed.

Service prices maintained steady growth in June, rising 0.8 percent year-on-year, unchanged from May, and contributing about 0.40 percentage points to the CPI increase, according to the NBS.

The decline in food prices narrowed, with prices falling 1.6 percent year-on-year in June, 0.1 percentage point less compared to the previous month. Pork prices dropped 15.9 percent, with the decline narrowing by 0.2 percentage point from May.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI fell 0.3 percent in June, following a 0.1 percent decline in May, the NBS said. Dong attributed the monthly decline to seasonal factors and fluctuations in international market prices.

The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices and is deemed a better gauge of supply-demand conditions, rose 1.0 percent year-on-year in June, continuing to register moderate growth, according to the NBS.

Meanwhile, China's producer price index, which measures factory-gate prices, rose 4.1 percent year-on-year in June, accelerating from a 3.9 percent increase in May, the bureau said.

Stronger price gains in sectors including coal mining and washing, electrical machinery, electronics and ferrous metals contributed to the overall increase in producer prices, Dong said.

On a month-on-month basis, the PPI fell 0.3 percent in June, reversing a 0.5 percent increase in May.

Dong said falling international crude oil prices weighed on factory-gate prices in related domestic industries.

NBS data showed that prices in the oil extraction sector fell 16.0 percent month-on-month, while those in refined petroleum product manufacturing dropped 3.1 percent, with the declines widening by 14.2 and 2.8 percentage points, respectively, from May.

In addition, faster industrial upgrading boosted demand in some sectors and pushed prices higher, Dong said.

Month-on-month prices in virtual reality equipment manufacturing rose 8.4 percent in June, while wearable smart device manufacturing prices increased 3.4 percent, NBS data showed.