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Nov CPI figure to end months of drop: forecast

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-10 13:23

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, is to see a year-on-year growth between 0.5 percent to 0.6 percent in November, ending nine months of decline, analysts forecast.

Zhu Baoliang, vice director of the economic forecast division under the State Information Center, a government think tank, said the sweeping rain and snow and low temperatures since November had caused hikes in food prices across the country.

Prices of agricultural products in China's 36 major cities saw rises of 0.6 percent, 1.3 percent, and 1 percent for three consecutive weeks between Nov 9 and Nov 29, according to statistics by China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

November's CPI is also likely to see month-on-month increase, said Zhang Yongjun, a researcher with the China Center for International Economic Exchanges. China's consumer price index dipped 0.5 percent year-on-year in October.

The producer price index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, also began climbing since the latter half of October, with prices of energies, non-ferrous metals, steel, rubber, among others reporting rises, according to figures by the MOC.

Oil prices also rose by 6-7 percent in the first half of November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data show.

Monthly economic figures for November concerning industrial output, urban fixed-asset investment, export and import, and CPI is expected to be released by the NBS on Friday.