Sept 11, 2012
Translated by Pang Lei

The National Bureau of Statistics announced on Sunday that China's consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.0 percent year-on-year in August, a slight increase on the pace of growth registered in July, when the index rose by 1.8 percent compared to 12 months earlier.

On average from January to August, overall consumer prices were up by 2.9 percent over the same period last year.

China's CPI averaged growth of 5.4 percent in 2011, well above the government's full-year inflation control target of 4 percent.

China's Premier Wen Jiabao once again set the target inflation rate at 4 percent for 2012 when delivering his annual work report to the National People's Congress back in March.

According to the NBS, prices grew by 2.1 percent in cities and 1.8 percent in rural areas. Food prices went up by 3.4 percent, contributing 1.08 percentage points to the overall increase in CPI. Non-food prices increased by 1.4 percent.

The price of consumer goods went up by 2.1 percent and the price of services grew by 2.0 percent.
 
The prices of fresh vegetables surged 23.8 percent, contributing nearly 0.60 percentage points to the overall price level. The average price of fresh fruit also jumped by almost 10 percent. The price of meat, poultry and related products dropped 6.6 percent, with the price of pork down 18.5 percent.

According to the NBS, housing-related prices were up by 2.2 percent year-on-year in August. With rents and utilities both up 3 percent.

The producer price index (PPI), another measure of inflation at the wholesale level, fell 3.5 percent in August year-on-year, the sixth consecutive month of negative year-on-year growth since March 2012.

Links and Sources
National Bureau of Statistics: Consumer Prices for August 2012
National Bureau of Statistics: 2012年8月居民消费价格主要数据
National Bureau of Statistics: 2012年8月份工业生产者价格变动情况