China's Nov CPI rises 0.6%, PPI down 2.1%

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, increased 0.6 percent year-on-year in November, ending nine months of decline, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

The CPI figure declined 0.5 percent in October and increased 2.4 percent in last November.

The producer price index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, dropped 2.1 percent year-on-year in November, according to the NBS.

The rate of decline was 3.7 percentage points lower than that in October.

The PPI declined 6.0 percent year-on-year in the January-November period. The rate of decline was 0.4 percentage points lower than that in the January-October period.

The CPI rose 0.4 percent in urban areas and 0.9 percent in rural areas year-on-year in November.

Food prices, which account for one third of the CPI, increased 3.2 percent year-on-year last month, while non-food prices dropped 0.7 percent.

Housing costs declined 1.2 percent year-on-year in November, the NBS said. Property prices are not included in the CPI.

The CPI was down 0.9 percent year-on-year in the January-November period. The rate of decline was 0.2 percentage points lower than that in the January-October period, the NBS said.