China's September CPI expected to remain stable: analysts

BEIJING - China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, was expected to remain stable in September, Securities Daily reported Wednesday.

Analysts from 10 institutions predicted the September CPI would rise 2.8 percent year-on-year, the same as in August.

Although pork prices continued the upward trend last month, other types of food saw slower growth, said Hua Changchun, the chief economist with Guotai Junan Securities.

Vegetable prices saw a year-on-year decrease of 9.3 percent in September, while fruit prices rose 11.1 percent, down 17 percentage points from the same period last year, Hua said.

The effect brought by higher pork prices to CPI would be offset by vegetable and fruit prices, according to Wang Qing, the chief analyst with Golden Credit Rating International.

China aims to keep consumer inflation at around 3 percent in 2019, according to this year's government work report.

The 10 institutions also predicted that the producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, would drop 1.24 percent year-on-year in September.