BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhuanet) - China's Consumer Price Index (CPI) in September dipped slightly from August to 6.1 percent, indicating its inflation eases slightly, while pressure remains high.
It is the second month that China's inflation continued to ease from a 37-month high peak in July, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China made the remarks on Friday.
Yao Jingyuan, a former chief economist of the NBS predicted in September that China's CPI growth is to slow down in the coming months, while he assured no optimism towards the easing of the whole inflation picture.
FOOD PRICES DIPS SLIGHTLY
September's CPI rocketed to 6.1 percent year-on-year, mainly fueled by food prices which accounted for nearly one-third of the basket of goods in the nation's CPI calculation.
The growing speed of food prices slowed slightly, due to sufficient harvest supply in autumn and the dim economic outlook in the U.S. and the Eurozone.
Liu Yuanchun, a professor at the School of Economics of the Renmin University of China, explained that the slightly ease in food price is mainly caused by grain harvest, a drop in international commodity demands, and the recovery slowdown in the global economy.
INFLATION PRESSURE REMAINS HIGH
Although the growth of the food prices eased slightly in September from the highest peak, it still increased 13.4 percent, the same as the previous month, and adding 4.1 percentage points to the overall increase.
China's inflation pressure will remain high in the following months, against the background of high global inflation pressure especially in other BRIC nations.
India's inflation rate remained above 9 percent at the end of September and in Russia, Prime Minister Putin promises investors that the inflation rate would not exceed 7 percent this year.
Zhang Liqun, a researcher in the Development Research Center of the State Council, or China's Cabinet, estimated that for the whole year, China's consumer price will grow by 5 percent, one percentage point higher than the government's target and half percentage point higher than the IMF's prediction.
Source:Francis Xiong