China's consumer prices rose last month at their fastest pace since February 2024, official data showed Wednesday, following an extended period of deflationary pressure in the world's second-largest economy.
The consumer price index, a key measure of inflation, rose 0.7% year-on-year in November, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
The reading was in line with a Bloomberg forecast and higher than the 0.2% increase recorded in October.
"The expansion ... was mainly driven by a shift from declines to increases in food prices," NBS statistician Dong Lijuan said in a statement interpreting the data.
Beijing has been battling sluggish domestic spending for several years, with a prolonged crisis in the property sector and lingering effects from the Covid pandemic weighing on consumer sentiment.
In a sign of persisting woes, the producer price index, which measures the prices of goods before they enter wholesale or distribution, fell by 2.2% year-on-year in November, NBS data showed.
The drop in factory gate prices was slightly faster than the 2.0% decline forecast by Bloomberg and the 2.1% decrease recorded in October.
China's monthly PPI has been in negative territory for more than three years, reflecting weak demand and a global oversupply of manufactured goods from the country.