CHINA'S Consumer Price Index, a main gauge of inflation, will ease for a third consecutive month in October. The CPI may drop to 5.5 percent in October, due to falling food prices, said Yuan Gangming, a researcher at the Institute of Economic Research under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, the wholesale prices of 18 staple vegetables fell 2.2 percent during the last week of October, while prices of pork and eggs shed 1 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. Lian Ping, chief economist for the Bank of Communications, expects the CPI at 4 percent in December and 5.5 percent for the full year.