Consumer inflation rises in August, NBS data shows

China's consumer inflation accelerated in August, while factory-gate price growth gathered pace, with both indexes reversing month-on-month declines recorded in July, official data showed on Wednesday.

The consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 0.8 percent year-on-year in August, up from 0.5 percent in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The acceleration was driven mainly by energy prices, which climbed 4.1 percent from a year earlier after rising 0.6 percent in July. Gasoline prices rose 9.3 percent, the NBS said.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI rose 0.4 percent, reversing a 0.1 percent decline in July, as gasoline prices rebounded 7.2 percent and food prices increased 0.4 percent after remaining flat, the bureau said.

The growth in core CPI — which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is deemed a better gauge of the supply-demand relationship in the economy — edged up to 1.0 percent year-on-year from 0.9 percent in July.

China's producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, rose by 3.8 percent year-on-year in August, up from 3.5 percent in July, NBS data showed.

Dong Lijuan, an NBS statistician, attributed the faster PPI growth to rising global commodity prices, which lifted prices in related domestic industries, and stronger demand in some sectors driven by industrial transformation and upgrading.

The PPI rose by 0.4 percent on a monthly basis in August, reversing a 0.7 percent decline in July.