China consumer prices rise in December
Chinese consumer prices unexpectedly rose in December but core inflation weakened to a 10-year low.
The consumer price index rose 0.2% from a year earlier in December after dropping 0.5% in November with gains largely caused by rising food prices. Analysts on average had expected prices to be unchanged.
Consumer price growth in China has been weak with the country's rapid recovery from the Covid-19 crisis fuelled mainly by rising industrial production. Core inflation, excluding food and energy prices, fell to 0.4% in December - the weakest reading since early 2010.
Freya Beamish, chief Asia economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "Food prices were the driver, with a switch to 1.2% inflation, from deflation of -2.0%. Cold temperatures were partly to blame, but food prices are always especially volatile around Lunar New Year, even more so this year thanks to wild base effects in pork prices after the swine flu epidemic last year."