AFP, Beijing :
China’s consumer price inflation fell to a five-month low in October, the government said Tuesday, in another sign of weak demand in the world’s second-largest economy.
China is a key driver of global growth but expansion slowed to its lowest rate in nearly a quarter of a century in 2014 and has continued to weaken this year.
A year-on-year rise of 1.3 percent in the consumer price index (CPI) — a main gauge of inflation — released by the National Bureau of Statistics was the lowest since May and down sharply from 1.6 percent in September.
It was also well below market expectations of 1.5 percent based on a survey of analysts by Bloomberg News.
Moderate inflation can be a boon to consumption as it pushes buyers to act before prices go up, while falling prices encourage shoppers to delay purchases and companies to put off investment, both of which can hurt growth.
“Deflation risks still remain in the economy. We expect deflation pressure will continue to be there,” Claire Huang, China economist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong, told AFP.
Authorities pledged to accelerate reforms at a key Communist Party meeting earlier this month, but analysts warn that more needs to be done to avoid a hard landing for the economy.
