China's CPI in December turned from a decrease to an increase month-on-month, with the year-on-year growth rate continuing to expand; core CPI rose by 1.2%.

China's CPI in December turned from a decrease to an increase month-on-month, with the year-on-year growth rate continuing to expand; core CPI rose by 1.2%.

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China December CPI year-on-year 0.8%, previous value 0.7%. China December PPI year-on-year -1.9%, previous value -2.2%.

Chief Statistician Dong Lijuan from the Urban Division of the National Bureau of Statistics interprets the CPI and PPI data for December 2025:

 

In December, policies to expand domestic demand and promote consumption continued to show results. Coupled with the approaching New Year’s Day, consumer demand increased. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.2% month-on-month and increased by 0.8% year-on-year. The core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, rose by 1.2% year-on-year. Due to the transmission effect of international bulk commodity prices and the continuous effectiveness of domestic key industry capacity governance policies, the Producer Price Index (PPI) rose by 0.2% month-on-month and fell by 1.9% year-on-year.

 

1. CPI turned from a decline to an increase month-on-month, and the year-on-year increase continued to expand, with core CPI rising by 1.2%

 

CPI turned from a decline of 0.1% last month to an increase of 0.2%. The month-on-month rise was mainly due to the increase in prices of industrial consumer goods excluding energy. Industrial consumer goods prices excluding energy increased by 0.6%, contributing about 0.16 percentage points to the month-on-month CPI increase. Among these, the effect of consumption stimulus policies continued to appear, coupled with the approaching New Year's Day, residents' shopping and entertainment needs increased, and prices of communication tools, mother and baby products, cultural and entertainment durable goods, and household appliances all rose by 1.4% to 3.0%. Due to rising international gold prices, domestic gold jewelry prices rose by 5.6%. Energy prices fell by 0.5%, with domestic gasoline prices falling by 1.2% due to international oil price fluctuations, contributing about 0.04 percentage points to the month-on-month CPI decline. Food prices rose by 0.3%, contributing about 0.05 percentage points to the month-on-month CPI increase. Among these, pre-holiday consumption demand increased, with prices of fresh fruits and crustaceans rising by 2.6% and 2.5% respectively. Weather conditions remained relatively good, with prices of fresh vegetables rising by 0.8%, which was 3.3 percentage points lower than the seasonal level. Due to sufficient live pig production capacity, pork prices fell by 1.7%.

 

CPI rose by 0.8% year-on-year, an increase of 0.1 percentage points over last month, returning to the highest since March 2023. The expansion in year-on-year growth was mainly driven by expanding food price increases. Food prices rose by 1.1%, up 0.9 percentage points over last month, contributing about 0.17 percentage points more to the year-on-year CPI lift than last month. Among foods, the growth rates of fresh vegetables and fruits expanded to 18.2% and 4.4% respectively, contributing a combined 0.16 percentage points more to the year-on-year CPI lift than last month; prices of beef, mutton, and aquatic products rose by 6.9%, 4.4%, and 1.6% respectively, with wider increases; pork prices fell by 14.6%, with the decline slightly narrowing. Energy prices fell by 3.8%, a drop 0.4 percentage points greater than last month, with the drop in gasoline prices expanding to 8.4%. The core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, rose by 1.2% year-on-year, staying above 1% for four consecutive months. Service prices rose by 0.6%, contributing about 0.25 percentage points to the year-on-year CPI rise. Among these, household service prices rose by 1.2%; rent prices fell by 0.3%. Industrial consumer goods prices excluding energy rose by 2.5%, contributing about 0.63 percentage points to the year-on-year CPI rise. Among these, gold jewelry prices continued to rise sharply to 68.5%; household appliances and daily household articles prices rose by 5.9% and 3.2% respectively; fuel vehicles and new energy vehicle prices fell by 2.4% and 2.2% respectively, with the rate of decline narrowing.

 

2. PPI month-on-month increase expanded, year-on-year decline narrowed

 

PPI rose by 0.2% month-on-month, rising for three consecutive months, with the increase expanding by 0.1 percentage points over last month. The main features of this month’s PPI performance: First, the improvement in the supply-demand structure led to price rises in some industries. The combined impact of capacity governance and market regulation continued. Coal mining and processing prices rose by 1.3% and 0.8% month-on-month, respectively, for the fifth consecutive month; lithium-ion battery manufacturing prices rose by 1.0%, cement manufacturing prices by 0.5%, both for the third consecutive month; complete vehicle manufacturing for new energy vehicles shifted from a decline of 0.2% last month to a rise of 0.1%. Seasonal increases in demand led to price rises in gas production and supply, and in electricity and heat production and supply, up by 1.2% and 1.0% respectively; prices for down feather processing and worsted textile finishing both rose by 1.2% and 1.0%. Second, imported factors led to diverging price trends in domestic non-ferrous metals and petroleum-related industries. Rising international non-ferrous metals prices drove domestic prices for non-ferrous metal mining and dressing, smelting, and rolling up by 3.7% and 2.8% month-on-month, with prices for silver smelting, gold smelting, copper smelting, and aluminum smelting rising by 13.5%, 4.8%, 4.6%, and 0.9% respectively. Declining international crude oil prices led to domestic oil extraction and refined petroleum product manufacturing prices falling by 2.3% and 0.9% respectively.

 

PPI fell by 1.9% year-on-year, narrowing by 0.3 percentage points from last month. Domestic macroeconomic policies continued to be effective, and prices in some industries showed positive changes. First, deepening development of the unified national market led to continued narrowing in year-on-year price declines for related industries. The market competition environment was continuously improved; year-on-year price declines for coal mining and preparation, lithium-ion battery manufacturing, photovoltaic equipment and component manufacturing were all narrowed by 2.9, 1.2, and 0.4 percentage points respectively from last month, and have narrowed for 5, 4, and 9 months in a row. Second, the development of new productive forces drove year-on-year price increases in related industries. The digital economy sector continued to grow strongly, new raw material and new material production grew rapidly; green transformation kept empowering development. Prices for external storage equipment and parts rose by 15.3%, biomass liquid fuel prices rose by 9.0%, graphite and carbon products manufacturing prices rose by 5.5%, integrated circuit finished product prices rose by 2.4%, comprehensive utilization of waste resources prices rose by 0.9%, and service consumption robot manufacturing prices rose by 0.4%. Third, effective release of consumption potential drove year-on-year price increases in relevant industries. Consumption stimulus special actions were deeply implemented, and cultural and quality consumption grew rapidly. Prices for arts and crafts and ceremonial item manufacturing rose by 23.3%, sports ball manufacturing by 4.0%, traditional musical instrument manufacturing by 2.0%, and nutrition food manufacturing by 1.5%.

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