China's core consumer price index (CPI) rose for the third straight month in July, with market supply-demand dynamics showing positive shifts, a spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday.
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, Fu Linghui, the spokesman, said that July's month-on-month CPI shifted to growth after a period of declining as a result of rising prices of service and industrial consumer goods.
The spokesman listed three key sectors that contributed to such a growth trend.
First, many destinations in China entered a peak tourist season in July, resulting in obvious increases in the prices of services such as transportation.
Second, the government's various consumption stimulus policies showed effects, leading to increases in the prices of some industrial consumer goods.
And third, affected by changes in international oil prices, energy prices increased 1.6 percent month on month, which in turn drove up the month-on-month increase in the CPI, according to the spokesman.
"Price analysis requires examining both changes of the CPI and core the CPI, while the latter better reflects inflation trends. While the CPI in July flattened year on year in July after going up, the core CPI excluding food and energy rose 0.8 percent year on year in the month, up 0.1 percentage point over June. This marks expansion for three consecutive months. Since the beginning of this year, the core CPI has generally been in a upward trend amid stability, indicating that positive changes have taken place in market supply and demand," Fu said.
The continued year-on-year growth of the core CPI in July was mainly attributable to effective implementation of the government-sponsored exclusive programs to boost consumption, steady advancement of efforts to build a unified national market, regulation in accordance with law and rules over chaotic competition meant to drive down prices, upgrading of residents' consumption, and continued expansion of the demand for service consumption.
"Overall, the CPI in July remained broadly stable with continued emergence of positive changes, though supply still exceeds demand amid low price levels. In a next phase, policies on expanding domestic demand and on in-depth promotion of construction of a unified national market will continue to show effect, as favorable conditions for promoting rational recovery of the overall price level will continue to accumulate," said the spokesman.
China's core CPI growth extends for third straight month in July
