BEIJING, March 9 (Reuters) - China's annual consumer
inflation slowed down in February as consumers remained cautious
despite the abandonment of strong pandemic controls late last
year, official data showed on Thursday.
Producer deflation extended into a fifth month.
The consumer price index (CPI) for the month was 1.0% higher
than a year earlier, compared with the 2.1% annual rise seen in
January, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The
result fell short of the median estimate of a 1.9% gain in a
Reuters poll.
The CPI, which is seasonally adjusted, fell 0.5% from a
month earlier, missing the forecast of 0.2% gain. The monthly
CPI rise in January was 0.8%.
The government has set a target for average consumer prices
in 2023 to be about 3% higher than last year, when prices were
up 2% on 2021 and fell short of a target for 3%.
The producer price index (PPI) in February fell 1.4% from a
year earlier. Economists in a Reuters poll had forecast a fall
of 1.3%.
In January the PPI was down 0.8% on a year earlier.
China's parliament has set what analysts say is a
conservative growth target for 2023 gross domestic product of
around 5%, a sign that policymakers are aware of economic
headwinds.
(Reporting by Liangping Gao and Ryan Woo; Editing by Bradley
Perrett)
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