China's CPI down 0.3% in January

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, declined 0.3 percent year on year in January, compared with a 0.2-percent increase in December last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

A woman shops at a supermarket in Qiaoxi District of Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Jan. 31, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Xiao)

The CPI edged up 1 percent on a monthly basis, expanding 0.3 percentage points from a month earlier.

Food prices increased 1.6 percent year on year last month, up 0.4 percentage points from December and contributing about 0.3 percentage points to the CPI increase, said Dong Lijuan, a senior statistician with the NBS.

China saw a CPI hike in January 2020, which was mainly driven by the effect of the Spring Festival holiday.

Dong said the relatively high base was the main factor that dragged the country's CPI into negative territory last month.

In breakdown, prices of vegetables climbed 10.9 percent in January from a year earlier, while those of pork, chicken and duck declined 3.9 percent, 10.7 percent and 6.8 percent year on year, respectively.

Wednesday's data also showed China's producer prices, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, rose 0.3 percent year on year in January.