PPI decline eases for 2nd consecutive month in Sept

China's factory-gate prices saw a narrow decline in September, while consumer prices fell slightly, official data showed on Wednesday.

China's producer price index - which measures factory-gate prices – fell 2.3 percent year-on-year in September, easing from a 2.9 percent drop in August, marking the second consecutive month of improvement, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Dong Lijuan, an NBS statistician, attributed the narrowing decline to both a lower comparison base from last year and government's effective efforts to implement proactive macroeconomic policies, which helped some industries see positive pricing changes.

"The steady advancement of the unified national market has helped narrow year-on-year price declines in several industries, as effective capacity control and improved market competition continue to take hold. The ongoing industrial upgrading and the release of consumption potential have also driven price increases in some sectors," Dong said.

"Meanwhile, with the modern industrial system taking shape, China's manufacturing sector is moving toward higher-end, smarter and greener development, supported by expanding market demand," Dong added. "The effects of consumption-boosting policies are becoming more evident, unleashing demand for higher-quality and upgraded goods and services."

On a month-on-month basis, the PPI remained flat in September, the same as in August, according to the NBS.

The country's consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, fell by 0.3 percent year-on-year in September, following a 0.4 percent drop in August, according to the NBS.

Month-on-month, the CPI increased 0.1 percent in September, while the figure was flat in August.

Dong highlighted that the year-on-year decline in CPI in September was mainly due to the carryover effect. "Of the year-on-year decrease of 0.3 percent in the CPI in September, the carryover effect sent the CPI down by 0.8 percentage points, while new price increases edged the growth up by 0.5 percentage points."

Meanwhile, Dong also noted that the year-on-year increase in core CPI accelerated for the fifth consecutive month in September, marking the first time in 19 months that the growth rate has reached 1 percent.

NBS data showed the core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is deemed a better gauge of the supply-demand relationship, increased 1 percent year-on-year in September, up from a 0.9 percent rise in August.