Baku:The consumer price index (CPI) in China, a key measure of inflation, rose by 0.9% in September compared to the previous year, largely due to increased energy and industrial consumer goods prices, as reported by official data on Wednesday.
According to Qatar News Agency, the CPI also saw a monthly increase of 0.2%, though this rate of growth narrowed by 0.2 percentage points from the previous month. Over the first nine months of 2026, consumer prices increased by 0.9% compared to the same period last year.
The year-on-year inflation in September was primarily driven by surging energy prices and industrial consumer goods, while a decrease in food prices had a dampening effect on overall inflation, as noted by Dong Lijuan, a statistician at the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Gasoline prices saw a significant rise, surging 16.6% year-on-year, which added approximately 0.47 percentage points to the overall CPI increase. Industrial consumer goods prices, excluding energy, went up by 1.6% year-on-year, contributing around 0.39 percentage points to the CPI growth.
Service prices increased by 0.8%, consistent with August, contributing about 0.4 percentage points to the CPI rise. Among these, travel-related service prices increased by 2.1%, while medical service prices rose by 4%.
Conversely, food prices fell by 1.7% year-on-year, with the decline expanding by 0.3 percentage points from August, reducing the overall CPI by approximately 0.29 percentage points. Monthly, higher prices of industrial consumer goods and food contributed to the CPI increase, although this was partially offset by seasonal declines in travel-related service prices, according to the NBS.
