Mainland consumer prices edge higher
Consumer prices on the mainland rose 1.8 percent in December, up from a 1.6 percent increase the month before, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. That's due mainly to rising food prices even as domestic consumption remained weak. Food prices were 4.8 percent higher in December than a year earlier, after an annual rise of 3.7 percent in November. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, is still subdued, edging up by 0.7 percent compared with a 0.6 percent increase the month before. For the entire 2022, the consumer price index climbed 2 percent year on year. Bruce Pang, chief economist at Jones Lang Lasalle, expects the year-average CPI for 2023 to go up by 2.5 percent. Meanwhile, the fall in the producer price index slowed last month to 0.7 percent from 1.3 percent in November. Officials cited a lower base and declining oil prices. (Additional reporting by Xinhua, Reuters)