Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 10th. Title: CPI turns from a decrease to a higher month-on-month period, and prices in some industrial industries are steadily improving - a perspective on price data in April

Xinhua News Agency reporter Pan Jie

On May 10, consumers purchased fruits in a supermarket in Yangxin County, Binzhou City, Shandong Province. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Chu Baorui)

In April, the national consumer price index (CPI) turned from a month-on-month decrease of 0.4% to a month-on-month increase from 0.4% last month to a month-on-month increase. The core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, rose by 0.5% year-on-year. The development of high-tech industries drove the price increase of related industries. The price of wearable smart equipment manufacturing increased by 3% year-on-year, and the price of aircraft manufacturing increased by 1.3% year-on-year...

The price data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on May 10 showed that although international imported factors had a certain pull-down effect on the prices of some industries, my country's economic foundation was stable and resilient, various macro policies were put into coordinated, high-quality development was steadily promoted, and prices in some areas showed positive changes.

From the consumer price index, in April, driven by the rebound in food and travel services prices, CPI turned from a decrease to a month-on-month increase, with an increase of 0.2 percentage points higher than the seasonal level.

From sub-item, food prices rose by 0.2% month-on-month. Among foods, due to factors such as the reduction in imports, beef prices rose by 3.9% month-on-month; some regions entered a marine fishing moratorium, and the price of seawater fish rose by 2.6% month-on-month; the supply of new fruits decreased seasonally in the early stages of listing, and the prices of potatoes and fresh fruits rose by 4.7% and 2.2% month-on-month respectively.

Facts such as recovery in demand and holidays have led to a significant rebound in travel service prices. Air tickets, transportation rental fees, hotel accommodation and tourism prices rose by 13.5%, 7.3%, 4.5% and 3.1% month-on-month respectively, all higher than the seasonal level, which affected the CPI month-on-month increase by about 0.1 percentage point.

From the year-on-year perspective, service prices also showed a steady upward trend, up 0.3% year-on-year, the same as last month. Among them, the prices of housekeeping services, elderly care services and education services rose by 2.5%, 1.4% and 1.2% year-on-year respectively.

Add to increase the silver-factory tourism train, introduce the 2025 work plan for improving the quality of service consumption, and release several measures to promote the expansion and upgrading of domestic service consumption... Since the beginning of this year, a series of policy measures have been continuously put in place to promote the continuous release of service consumption potential. "There were positive changes in service prices in April, both year-on-year and month-on-month, and demand for my country's service industry has steadily rebounded." said Liu Fang, a researcher at the Institute of Market and Price of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Affected by the decline in international oil prices, CPI fell by 0.1% year-on-year in April, the same as last month. Dong Lijuan, chief statistician of the Urban Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, analyzed that energy prices fell by 4.8% year-on-year, an increase of 2.2 percentage points from the previous month. Among them, gasoline prices fell by 10.4%, affecting the year-on-year decline of CPI by about 0.38 percentage points, which is the main factor driving the year-on-year decline in CPI.

"As Saudi Arabia, Russia and other countries announced plans to increase oil production significantly more than expected, international oil prices fell significantly. Affected by this, domestic refined oil prices generally fell. In addition, coal prices continued to fall, natural gas prices fell slightly, and energy prices expanded year-on-year to 4.8% from a decrease of 2.6% last month to 4.8%. "Wen Bin, chief economist of China Minsheng Bank, said that the increase in the decline in energy prices has increased, and the impact on CPI pull-down was 0.22 percentage points higher than last month.

In April, the core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, turned flat from a month-on-month increase, up 0.2%; it rose 0.5% year-on-year, and the increase remained stable.

Wen Bin said that the core CPI, which can better reflect the steady rise in supply and demand relationship, reflects the internal resilience of my country's economy. As a package of stock policies and incremental policies continue to make efforts and achieve results, supply and demand are expected to improve further. At the same time, service prices have risen for the second consecutive month, and the potential for service consumption continues to emerge, which are conducive to the mild rebound in subsequent price levels.

From the industrial producer price index (PPI), although PPI fell by 0.4% month-on-month and 2.7% year-on-year in April, high-tech industries have accelerated their growth, demand for some industries has increased, and prices in some areas have shown positive changes.

The deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation, and the development of industries such as intelligent manufacturing and high-end equipment manufacturing has driven the year-on-year increase in prices in related industries. In April, the price of wearable smart devices manufacturing rose by 3%, the price of aircraft manufacturing rose by 1.3%, the price of micro-motors and components manufacturing rose by 1.2%, the price of servers rose by 1%, and the price of ships and related devices manufacturing rose by 0.8%.

On May 10, consumers purchased goods from a supermarket in Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Sun Zhongzhe)

With the steady progress of infrastructure construction in various places, the year-on-year decline in prices of ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industries and non-metallic mineral products industries narrowed by 1.4 and 1 percentage point respectively compared with the previous month. Policies such as promoting consumption and equipment renewal continue to be effective, and the release of demand for some consumer goods and equipment manufacturing products has driven prices to rebound in related industries. Among them, the year-on-year decline in the price of household washing machines narrowed by 0.3 percentage points compared with the previous month, the year-on-year decline in the price of food manufacturing and new energy passenger cars narrowed by 0.2 percentage points, and the year-on-year decline in the price of special equipment for electrical machinery narrowed by 0.7 percentage points.

In addition, my country continues to promote trade diversification, and the expansion of the market has driven the year-on-year increase in prices in some export industries or the decline may narrow. The prices of integrated circuit packaging and testing series rose by 2.7% year-on-year, and the prices of special equipment manufacturing for semiconductor devices rose by 1%; the prices of tractor manufacturing, electronic device manufacturing, and textile and garment industries narrowed by 1.2, 0.7 and 0.3 percentage points respectively compared with last month.

"The policy effects such as boosting consumer demand and promoting equipment renewal have been further revealed, which has solved the supply and demand structure problems in related industries to a certain extent, boosted the development speed of some consumer goods and equipment manufacturing industries, and thus played a supporting role in the prices of related industries." Liu Fang said that with the implementation of more active and proactive macro policies, domestic demand will continue to expand, creating a favorable environment for a moderate rise in price levels.