By Gina Lee
Investing.com – China’s factory gate prices rose in annual terms, and at the fastest rate since May 2019, in January for the first time in a year.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released earlier in the day showed that January’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) grew 1% month-on-month, against the 1% in forecast prepared by Investing.com and December’s 0.7% growth. However, the CPI fell 0.3% year-on-year, against the predicted 0.1% drop and December's 0.2% growth.
The data also showed that January's Producer Price Index (PPI) grew 0.3% year-on-year, smaller than the forecast 0.4% growth but improving on December’s 0.4% drop.
Although there were still signs of a gathering growth momentum in the world’s second largest economy, an outbreak of COVID-19 cases in December saw the re-imposition of lockdowns in the affected areas and worries about temporary disruptions to production.
The outbreak, the country's worst since March 2020, saw measures such as home quarantines and travel curbs imposed to curb the spread of the virus. The disappointing data also reflected the impact of the measures’ impact on both production and services, including logistics and transportation, ahead of the upcoming Lunar New Year holidays.
Other key datasets for January, including those for trade, industrial output and retail sales, will be combined with figures for February and released in March. Investors will therefore have to wait for more datapoints with which to gauge economic health.