China consumer prices rise at slower rate in November

BEIJING

China's consumer inflation rate slowed in November, official data showed on Monday, as demand remains muted in the world's number two economy.

The country is battling sluggish domestic consumption, a persistent crisis in the property sector and soaring government debt, all of which threaten Beijing's official growth target for this year.

The consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.2 percent in November year-on-year, down from 0.3 percent in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

That was below the 0.4 percent forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Beijing has announced in recent months a slew of its most aggressive measures in years aimed at boosting growth in China, which has struggled to fully recover since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many major Western economies have been grappling with the threat of high inflation but China has instead been battling low or negative prices.

Beijing has unveiled a string of measures since September aimed at bolstering growth, including cutting interest rates, cancelling restrictions on homebuying and easing the debt burden on local governments.

However, economists have warned that more direct fiscal stimulus aimed at shoring up domestic consumption is needed to restore full health in China's economy.

"Economic activities stabilised recently but the recovery is not strong enough to boost inflation yet," Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said in a note.

"It requires a much stronger fiscal push to get China out of the deflationary environment," he said.