A customer shops for vegetables at a supermarket in Tongdao Dong autonomous county of Huaihua city, central China's Hunan province, Oct 13, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

BEIJING - China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, edged down 0.5 percent year-on-year in November, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed Saturday.

NBS statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the fall to factors such as the decrease in prices of food and energy in November.

The year-on-year CPI reading for November narrowed by 0.3 percentage points compared to October as energy prices became a main drag. Energy price decrease contributed 0.19 percentage points to the CPI decline in the month, Dong said.

Food prices were down 4.2 percent year-on-year, with the pace of decrease rising by 0.2 percentage points, pork prices went down 31.8 percent year-on-year, while prices for eggs, edible oil, beef, mutton, as well as poultry and aquatic products, fell by between 1.1 percent and 10.5 percent, the data showed.

However, the core CPI, deducting food and energy prices, went up 0.6 percent year-on-year last month as the pace of increase stayed unchanged compared with October, maintaining a moderate increase, Dong said.

On a monthly basis, the CPI also dipped 0.5 percent in November from the previous month, the data showed. During the month, food prices went down 0.9 percent while non-food prices fell 0.4 percent, the data showed

The data showed that non-food prices went up 0.4 percent year-on-year last month, of which prices of services edged up by 1 percent, while prices for clothing rose 1.4 percent.

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On a monthly basis, the CPI also dipped 0.5 percent in November from the previous month, the data showed. During the month, food prices went down 0.9 percent while non-food prices fell 0.4 percent, the data showed.

Dong said that the month-on-month decrease was mainly due to the impact of warmer weather, sufficient supply of agricultural products, falling international oil prices, and a seasonal decline in consumer demand for travel and other services.

The average CPI from January to November increased 0.3 percent year-on-year, the NBS data showed.

PPI down 0.3% percent

Saturday's data also showed that the country's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 3 percent year-on-year in November.

On a monthly basis, the November PPI went down 0.3 percent compared to October when the PPI stayed unchanged, according to data.

"Due to factors such as the fall in international oil prices and weak market demand for some industrial products, the nation's PPI on a monthly basis turned from staying flat (in October) to a decrease in November, while the PPI decline also widened in November year on year," said Dong.

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Prices of means of production fell 0.3 percent month-on-month, contributing 0.24 percentage points to the overall decline in monthly PPI for November, NBS data showed.

In terms of producer prices for major industries, prices for the oil and gas extraction industry went down 2.8 percent month-on-month in November; prices for the non-ferrous metal ores mining industry went down 0.5 percent, and prices for the agricultural and sideline food processing industry went down 0.8 percent, the data showed.

Meanwhile, prices for the ferrous metal ores mining industry went up 1.8 percent and that for the production and supply of gas went up 1.4 percent month-on- month, the data showed.

The average PPI in the first 11 months of 2023 went down 3.1 percent year-on-year, according to the data showed.