China's October CPI rises 0.7% year-on-year, PPI rises 5.7%

China's National Bureau of Statistics released October price data on November 9, 2026, showing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.7% year-on-year, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points from the previous month. On a month-on-month basis, the CPI was flat, compared with a 0.2% rise in September.

The Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 5.7% year-on-year in October, above September's 5.0% and the market forecast of 5.3%. It marked the largest increase since June 2022 and the third straight month of acceleration. On a month-on-month basis, the PPI rose 0.7%, with the increase pulling back 0.5 percentage points from the previous month.

Among CPI components, gasoline prices rose 22.4% year-on-year, an expansion of 5.8 percentage points from the previous month, affecting the year-on-year rise of CPI by about 0.63 percentage points. Energy price growth expanded from 7.3% in the previous month to 9.9% in October. Prices of industrial consumer goods excluding energy rose 1.2% year-on-year, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points from the previous month. Among them, prices of data storage devices, tablets, computers, and mobile phones rose 45.4%, 29.3%, 23%, and 16.7% respectively. The four items combined affected the year-on-year rise of CPI by about 0.26 percentage points.

Service prices rose 0.7% year-on-year, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points from the previous month. Among services, medical service prices rose 3.6%; travel service prices rose 1.5%. Food prices fell 2.9% year-on-year, an expansion of the decline by 1.2 percentage points from the previous month. Among food, prices of fresh vegetables, pork, and fresh fruits fell by 16.9%, 8.6%, and 3.8% respectively.

Pang Ming, a member of the China Chief Economist Forum, stated that although prices of fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, and pork remain at low levels, prices in service and non-food fields such as transportation and communications, healthcare, and education, culture, and entertainment maintain a moderate upward trend, reflecting that service consumption and some upgraded consumption demands still have resilience. He also mentioned that in October, China's core CPI excluding food and energy rose by 0.8% year-on-year, indicating that overall consumer prices maintained a moderate growth trend and demand remained stable.

On the producer side, industrial producer purchase prices rose 7.9% year-on-year in October, outpacing the increase in ex-factory prices. Within the ex-works price of industrial producers, the price of means of production rose 7.4% year-on-year. Among them, extractive industry prices rose 27.9%, raw material industry prices rose 11.6%, and processing industry prices rose 3.5%. Consumer goods prices declined 0.1%.

Within the purchasing price of industrial producers, fuel and power prices rose 18.6%, chemical raw material prices rose 16.8%, non-ferrous metal materials and wires prices rose 16.7%, textile raw material prices rose 5.3%, and agricultural and sideline product prices rose 0.5%; building materials and non-metallic prices declined 1.9%, and ferrous metal material prices declined 1.1%.

Market sources indicated that this round of PPI gains was mainly driven by oil and commodity prices, with higher energy and raw material prices pushing ex-factory prices upward. However, insufficient domestic demand momentum made it difficult for companies to fully pass on the added costs to selling prices, causing consumer-side price growth to narrow. ING noted that energy and raw material prices continued to push producer-side prices higher, while consumer-side price growth slowed instead due to weak demand.

For processing and manufacturing industries, if raw material prices continue to rise while product selling prices cannot be raised in tandem, gross margins will face compression, and manufacturers with weaker bargaining power and a higher proportion of raw material costs could see more pronounced pressure on profitability.

Pang Ming believes that price operations are expected to continue to warm up moderately. Especially with the continuous implementation of policies to expand domestic demand, the release of the effect of consumption subsidies, and the steady recovery of service consumption, core CPI is expected to maintain stable operations.

Sources

This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.