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| 中国通胀放缓至5.5％，调控政策有所改变.Chinese inflation slowed to 5.5%, a change in control policy. |
中国通胀放缓至5.5％，调控政策有所改变.BEIJING -- China's consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 5.5 percent year-on-year in October, weakening from September's 6.1 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.
The October CPI growth marked the slowest surge since May this year, softening from 6.1 percent in September, 6.2 percent in August, 6.5 percent in July and 6.4 percent in June.
"The October CPI data showed that the government's price control efforts have started to pay off," said Zhang Liqun, a macroeconomic researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council, or China's Cabinet.
Zhang said the slowing price increases will create favorable conditions for the country to fine-tune its monetary tightening policies, although inflationary pressure will remain due to a large outstanding broad money supply (M2).
By the end of September, the gross M2 still stood at 78.74 trillion yuan ($12.4 trillion), about 1.8 times larger than China's gross domestic product (GDP). In 2008, it was only 1.54 times larger than the GDP, Zhang said.
"The size of the money supply remains huge and policymakers should be careful about (loosening) the monetary policy and not ignore its potential for boosting prices," he said. "It is a critical moment for the country's macroeconomic control policies and we can't be too careless in loosening the policies."
Prior to the NBS announcement, many economists expected the October CPI to rise by 5.4 percent year-on-year, still well above the government's full-year target of 4 percent.
Lu Zhiming, a researcher with the Bank of Communications, said October's slower growth in CPI and PPI was within his expectations.
Lu attributed the weakening inflation to price declines in farm and non-farm products and accumulated efforts of monetary tightening introduced in previous months, as well as commodity price drops amid the lingering European debt crisis.
"Prices are now on a downward trend and the CPI reading will weaken further in the fourth quarter, bringing the full-year CPI rate to around 5.5 percent," Lu said.
Over the next two years, the average inflation rate will fall to between 2.8 percent and 4 percent but the government should be vigilant in countering inflation risks in the medium and long term, he added.
On a monthly basis, the cost of living in October was still 0.1 percent higher than September, although it was still lower than the 0.5 percent month-on-month growth in September, according to the NBS.
Price weakening
On breakdown of the CPI calculations, food prices, which account for nearly one-third of the basket of goods used to calculate the CPI, moved up 11.9 percent in October from a year earlier but dipped 0.2 percent month-on-month, according to NBS data.
The slowing inflation reading buoyed Beijing residents like Wang Baorong, who was shopping for vegetables when the NBS released the data.
"The news is pretty good. I did feel the food prices were down a little bit," she said when making her orders at the Laoqianggen food market in downtown Beijing, "I can buy more celery and carrots with the same amount of money as month ago."
Liu Jiandang, a grocer at another market just a couple of miles away, said he had more room to bargain with customers on the price of vegetables he sold this month because the wholesale purchase prices were lower.
"Generally, vegetable prices are down," he said.
China's producer price index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 5 percent in October year-on-year, the slowest growth in a year.
The slowing PPI reading will offer support to the country's efforts to control inflation in November when producers passed on the smaller price gains to consumers.
Policy impact
Lu Zhengwei, chief economist of the Industrial Bank, said the October CPI figure was exactly in line with his forecast. But the 5.0-percent PPI growth was far below the bank's expectation.
"This is a clear signal that China's economy has succeeded in making a soft landing," said the economist.
Separately, in a report released shortly after the NBS announcement, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) predicted a big chance of the CPI year-on-year growth to fall below 5 percent in November and even to 4.6 percent in December, citing factors including "a rising comparison base and falling prices of food and energy."
"This data should be quite positive to market sentiments. As inflation worries ease, the room for fine-tuning monetary tightening is getting bigger," wrote Lu Ting and three other BoAML researchers in the report.
Even though policymakers might still put taming inflation as a top priority, the BoAML team see policies to be increasingly nudged towards pro-growth.
"But we don't expect a major change in monetary policy stance or some high profile moves such as cuts of policy rates and reserve requirement ratio (RRR). We think the chance of a system-wide RRR cut is still quite small as an RRR cut could send a too strong signal of changing policy stance," said the BoAML team.
China's PPI up 5.0% in October
China's Producer Price Index (PPI), a main gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 5percent year-on-year in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.
The reading eased from a growth of 6.5 percent in September.
The decline is bigger, as the index for October was previously estimated at between 5.7percent and 6 percent, according to the Xinhua macro-economic data survey.
On a month-on-month basis, October's reading fell 0.7 percent from that recorded inSeptember, the NBS said in a statement on its website.
An easing PPI shows that the government's cooling measures have begun to take effect,according to Chen Kexin, an analyst with the Distribution Productivity Promotion Center ofChina Commerce.
He also said that a cooling real economy will sap demand for raw materials and thus drag downprices.
The producer prices of production materials rose 5.2 percent in October year-on-year, anddecreased 0.8 percent from a month earlier.
The producer price level for non-ferrous metal slumped 4.9 percent from a month ago, whilethat for fuel edged down 0.3 percent.
However, Chen said there is still uncertainty regarding whether the PPI will continue to fall.
As fears of a double-dip global recession are still prevailing, many countries are implementingstimulus plans to boost growth, which leaves room for price hikes, he said.
China's retail sales up 17.2% in Oct
China's retail sales grew 17.2 percent year-on-year to reach 1.65 trillion yuan ($262.6 billion) in October, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.
After deducting inflation, actual growth stood at 11.3 percent, the NBS said in a statement on its website.
On a monthly basis, retail sales increased 1.3 percent, according to the statement.
During the first 10 months, the country's retail sales rose 17 percent from one year earlier to hit 14.74 trillion yuan.
Urban retail sales increased 17.2 percent year-on-year to 1.44 trillion yuan last month, while rural retail sales climbed 17.4 percent to 219.1 billion yuan, the NBS said.
In October, the nation's catering sector generated sales of 194.5 billion yuan, a rise of 17.1 percent from a year earlier, while commodities retail sales increased 17.3 percent to 1.46 trillion yuan.
Auto sales rose by 12.6 percent to hit 174.6 billion yuan during the same period, the NBS said.
Sales of home appliances and audiovisual equipment climbed 15.3 percent to 53.4 billion yuan last month, while sales of furniture rose 33.3 percent to 11.8 billion yuan, according to the statement.
Oct industrial output up 13.2%
China's industrial value-added output grew 13.2 percent year-on-year in October, down fromSeptember's 13.8-percent growth,the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.
On a monthly basis, output increased by 0.9 percent from September.
In the first ten months, industrial value-added output increased 14.1 percent year-on-year,down 0.1 percentage points from the first nine months.
In October, the industrial value-added output of State-owned and State-held companies grew8.9 percent year-on-year, while that of collectively-owned and joint-stock enterprises expandedby 9.2 percent and 15.1 percent, respectively.
Industrial value-added output for the heavy industry sector rose 13.7 percent from one yearearlier, while that of the light industry sector climbed 12.1 percent.
All 39 of the country's industrial sectors posted gains in October, with textiles up 8.1 percent;chemical materials and products up 13.1 percent; general equipment manufacturing up 15.8percent; and transportation equipment manufacturing up 11.3 percent.
The NBS said that 97.8 percent of industrial enterprises' products were sold in October, 0.3percentage points lower year-on-year.
Industrial value-added output measures the final output value of industrial production, or thevalue of gross industrial output minus intermediate input, such as raw materials and laborcosts.
The NBS also released on Wendesday other economic indicators such as the consumer priceindex (CPI), fixed-asset investment and retail sales figures.
Jan-Oct fixed-assets investment up 24.9%
China's fixed-asset investment rose 24.9 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months of the year to 24.1365 trillion yuan ($3.8 trillion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.
The fixed-asset investment growth rate was the same as that recorded for the first nine months, said the NBS in a press release on its website.
On a monthly basis, fixed-asset investments increased 1.34 percent in October, it said.
Investment in the nation's property sector rose 31.1 percent year-on-year to reach 4.99 trillion yuan in the ten-month period, of which 3.58 trillion yuan went into residential housing, an increase of 34.3 percent from the same period last year.
Investment in State-owned and State-controlled companies rose 12.4 percent to 8.39 trillion yuan during the period.
Investment in the nation's eastern region grew 22.2 percent year-on-year, while investment in central and western regions rose 29.7 percent and 29.6 percent, respectively.
