Warm winter and late arrival of Spring Festival lead to low CPI

THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS' latest report shows that the consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, for January 2015 rose by just 0.8 percent, the lowest in five years. The index for food products increased 1.1 percent and that for non-food products, 0.6 percent. Comments:

Thanks to the warm winter, the prices of fresh vegetables fell instead of rising in January, while the prices of fruits and seafood increased only slightly. Besides, falling global crude oil prices also caused gas and diesel prices to drop. More importantly, the Chinese New Year, during which prices of consumer products generally rise, will be celebrated in the second half of February instead of January, which also led to the low CPI.

Yu Qiumei, senior actuary at the National Bureau of Statistics, Feb 10