Official figures released on Monday confirmed a sustained recovery in China’s factory-gate costs alongside a modest quickening in consumer price inflation during April.

The Producer Price Index (PPI), a measure of manufacturing and wholesale costs, climbed by 2.8 per cent year-on-year, China Daily reports. This marks the second consecutive month of expansion and represents an increase of 2.3 percentage points compared to the March figure, which ended 41 consecutive months of price contraction.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated that the non-ferrous metal sectors were significant contributors to this growth. Prices in non-ferrous metal mining and dressing soared by 38.9 per cent annually, while the non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing sector experienced a 22.5 per cent increase. Collectively, these two industries accounted for approximately 1.58 percentage points of the overall annual PPI growth.

NBS statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the broader year-on-year PPI acceleration primarily to surging international commodity prices and enhanced domestic demand, notably from industries requiring substantial computing power. 

She also noted that continued governmental attempts to curb excessive competition have stabilised the domestic market, leading to either price increases or narrower falls in related industries. Month-on-month, the PPI rose by 1.7 per cent in April, accelerating by 0.7 percentage points from the previous month.

Separately, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), China’s primary measure of retail inflation, rose 1.2 per cent year-on-year in April, slightly up from 1.0 per cent in March.

Industrial consumer goods prices saw a notable annual increase of 3.5 per cent, a 1.3 percentage point acceleration from March, which contributed approximately 1.06 percentage points to the CPI’s overall year-on-year rise.

Conversely, food prices decreased by 1.6 per cent compared to April last year, reversing the 0.3 per cent growth seen in March. The cost of pork fell by 15.2 per cent – a decline 3.7 percentage points sharper than the previous month – which subtracted around 0.29 percentage points from the annual CPI figure.

On a monthly basis, the CPI climbed 0.3 per cent, rebounding from a 0.7 per cent contraction in March. Dong attributed this rise primarily to escalating costs for energy and travel services, noting that the April CPI figure stood 0.4 percentage points above seasonal levels. Overall, the CPI for the first four months of the year increased by 0.9 per cent compared to the same period in the previous year.