China's consumer price index up 2.4% in August

China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, grew 2.4 percent year-on-year in August, down from 2.7 percent in the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

The CPI growth moderated as food prices rose slowly, with the year-on-year growth in pork prices sharply down 33.1 percentage points from a month earlier to 52.6 percent in August due to a high base last year, the NBS said.

The rise in non-food prices, meanwhile, sped up last month as the summer vacation boosted the demand for travel. The month-on-month growth in non-food prices rose by 0.1 percent in August, the first time for the reading to turn positive after the COVID-19 outbreak, the bureau said.

The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.5 percent year-on-year last month, the same as July.

The NBS also reported the country's producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, fell 2 percent year-on-year in August, versus a 2.4 percent decline a month earlier.

This marked the third consecutive month with the drop narrowing, as market demand continued to recover amid rising industrial production while international commodity prices sustained the rally, the bureau said.

Wu Chaoming, deputy dean of the Chasing Institute under Chasing Securities, said year-on-year CPI growth may moderate to about 1 percent in the fourth quarter of the year, while the factory-gate prices should continue to recover as stimulus measures filter through.