China's consumer price index (CPI) dipped 1.2 percent in August from a year earlier, and China's producer price index (PPI) fell 7.9 percent from a year earlier in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.

The number of counterfeit smaller-denomination bills seized by police so far this year has increased sixfold since 2005, Zhang Tao, an official with the Ministry of Public Security, said yesterday.

Despite the explosion in lending in the first half of this year, most Chinese banks do not regard bad loans as a major problem over the next three years.

Domestic passenger vehicle sales hit a new record high in August, nearly doubling over last year, far beyond industry expectations.

The Chinese government's probe into the Rio Tinto commercial spying case may not have a major impact on foreign companies' business investment decisions about China.