China's factory inflation rises to 5.7% as consumer price growth cools
October data show a gap between industrial costs and household inflation: producer prices rise 5.7%, while CPI slows to 0.7%.
China's factory-gate prices rose 5.7% from a year earlier in October, while consumer inflation slowed to 0.7%, official figures released Monday showed. The split points to strong industrial price pressures alongside much more subdued increases in household prices.
The producer price index rose 0.7% from September. Consumer prices were unchanged on the month. The annual CPI increase was down from 0.9% in September, while producer inflation exceeded the 5.3% forecast in a Reuters poll.
Energy costs and consumer demand tell different stories
Consumer inflation excluding food and energy slowed to 0.8% from 1%. Lower food prices helped offset the effect of more expensive gasoline on the headline measure.
At the factory gate, higher mining and raw-material prices contributed to the increase. The figures describe selling prices across industry, not the rate paid by households at shops and service businesses.
For investors, that distinction matters. Rising industrial costs can pressure margins without showing that consumer demand is equally strong. These data are a new reading on China's price mix, not evidence on their own of an imminent change in monetary policy.
