In March 2021, China’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 0.4 percent year on year. The prices in urban and rural areas rose by 0.5% and 0.4% respectively.
The prices of food stuff fell by 0.7% and non-foodstuff rose by 0.7 percent; the prices of consumer goods and services increased by 0.6% and 0.2% respectively.
In the first quarter of 2021, China’s consumer prices were flat compared with the same period last year.
In 2020, China’s national consumer price rose by 2.5 percent over the previous year.
In March, prices of food, tobacco and liquor went up by 0.1% year-on-year, affecting nearly 0.03%age point increase in the CPI.
- The prices of aquatic products increased by 8.1%, affecting the CPI up by 0.14 percentage point in total;
- that of fresh vegetables rose by 4.0%, affecting the CPI up by 0.08 percentage point in total;
- that of eggs went up by 3.4%, affecting the CPI up by about 0.02 percentage point;
- that of grain went up by 1.4%, affecting nearly 0.02 percentage point increase in the CPI;
- that of livestock meat went down by 9.1%, affecting a nearly 0.40 percentage point decrease in the CPI (the price of pork was down by 18.4%, affecting nearly 0.45 percentage point decrease in the CPI).
China Consumer Price in 2020
In 2020, the consumer price went up by 2.5% over last year, lower than the 2.9% growth in 2019 and also lower than the expected annual target of around 3.5%.
Specifically, the price went up by 2.3% in urban areas and 3.0% in rural areas.
Grouped by commodity categories:
- prices for food, tobacco and alcohol went up by 8.3 percent;
- clothing down by 0.2 percent; housing down by 0.4 percent;
- articles and services for daily use remained the same;
- transportation and communication down by 3.5 percent;
- education, culture and recreation up by 1.3 percent;
- medical services and health care up by 1.8 percent; and
- other articles and services up by 4.3%.
- prices for grain went up by 1.2%, fresh vegetables up by 7.1% and pork up by 49.7%.
Core CPI excluding the prices of food and energy went up by 0.8%.