La Jornada: Year-on-year inflation in China slowed to 0.5% in July

Beijing. China’s consumer price index (CPI) rose less than expected in July as the world’s second-largest economy faces persistent deflationary pressures, data showed on Sunday. The CPI, a key indicator of inflation, slowed to 0.5 percent year on year in July, the lowest increase since January, China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NSO) reported.

The Chinese economy has had weak domestic consumption for years, which has hampered growth despite the rise in exports and part of its technology sector. Meanwhile, the producer price index, which measures factory costs, increased 3.5 percent year-on-year in July, below 4.1 percent in June, according to the ONE. “Economic momentum weakened in (the second quarter)” of 2026, Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, wrote on Sunday. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, increased 0.9 percent year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).