BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s consumer prices fell for a fourth straight month in May while producer deflation deepened, as the economy faces headwinds from trade tensions and a prolonged housing downturn.
The consumer price index dipped 0.1% last month from a year earlier, versus a 0.1% drop in April, National Bureau of Statistics data showed on Monday, slightly better than a Reuters poll forecast of a 0.2% decline.
CPI slid 0.2% on a monthly basis, compared with a 0.1% increase in April, and matched economists’ predictions of a 0.2% decline.
The producer price index was down 3.3% in May from a year earlier, worse than a 2.7% decline in April and the deepest contraction in 22 months. That compared with an estimated 3.2% fall in a Reuters poll.
(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li and Ryan Woo; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
