China's inflation remains stable at 2.7% in June

BEIJING - China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.7 percent year-on-year in June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

The reading, in line with market expectations, had the same year-on-year expansion as that of May. On a monthly basis, consumer prices edged down 0.1 percent last month.

For the first half of this year, CPI increased 2.2 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the NBS.

Food prices grew 8.3 percent year-on-year last month, up from 7.7 percent in May. However, the prices edged down 0.3 percent on a monthly basis.

In June, fruit prices hit a record high by climbing 42.7 percent from a lower base last year and 5.1 percent month-on-month.

The price of pork expanded 3.6 percent month-on-month due to tight supply.

Non-food prices rose 1.4 percent year on year, 0.2 percentage points lower than that of May.

The CPI in urban and rural areas both registered a 2.7-percent growth year on year.

NBS official Dong Yaxiu said the carry-over effects resulted in a rise of 1.5 percentage points in the CPI growth in June, while new factors contributed to 1.2 percentage points.

Wednesday's data also showed that China's producer price index, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 0.3 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2019.