BEIJING—China’s annual consumer inflation rate accelerated in December, driven by rising food prices even as domestic demand wavered amid restrained economic activity.
Economists expect inflation to continue to pick up in the first quarter of 2023.
The consumer price index (CPI) in December was 1.8 percent higher than a year earlier, rising faster than the 1.6 percent annual gain seen in November, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Thursday. The result matched a Reuters poll estimate of 1.8 percent.
The annual rate fall in the producer price index (PPI) slowed in December to 0.7 percent from the 1.3 percent seen in the previous month. Economists in a Reuters poll had expected a 0.1 percent decline, reflecting disruption of industry by a high number of COVID-19 cases towards the end of 2022….