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Coronavirus pandemic
EconomyChina Economy

Coronavirus: China’s manufacturing prices plunge further in March, with consumer inflation easing

  • China’s producer price index, reflecting the prices that factories charge wholesalers for their products, fell further into deflation at minus 1.5 per cent in March
  • China’s consumer price inflation decelerated to 4.3 per cent in March from 5.2 per cent in February

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China’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 4.3 per cent in March from a year earlier. Photo: AFP
Frank TangandHarry Pearl

China’s manufacturing sector continued to suffer from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in March, as data released on Friday showed factory gate prices contracted at a faster pace last month.

The producer price index (PPI), reflecting the prices that factories charge wholesalers for their products, dropped 1.5 per cent year-on-year last month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

That was worse than the 0.4 per cent fall in February and the 1.1 per cent contraction tipped in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

China’s consumer price index (CPI), meanwhile, rose 4.3 per cent from a year earlier, decelerating sharply from a 5.2 per cent gain in February, the NBS said. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected an inflation rate of 4.9 per cent.

China has brought the domestic outbreak of the coronavirus under control in recent weeks, allowing authorities to relax some of the draconian restrictions aimed at containing it and kick-starting the economy in the process.

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