National Bureau of Statistics interpretation: Overall stability in CPI in May, PPI continues to rise.

On June 10, Dong Lijuan, Chief Statistician of the Urban Division of the National Bureau of Statistics, interpreted the CPI and PPI data for May 2026. In May, the overall operation of the resident consumption market was stable, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) decreasing by 0.1% month-on-month and increasing by 1.2% year-on-year. The core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, increased by 1.1% year-on-year. Influenced by factors such as increasing demand in some domestic industries and fluctuations in international commodity prices, the Producer Price Index (PPI) increased by 0.5% month-on-month and by 3.9% year-on-year. The overall CPI was stable in May 2026, while the PPI continued to rise. In terms of month-on-month changes, the national CPI decreased by 0.1%, compared to a 0.3% increase in the previous month, mainly due to changes in energy and service prices. Influenced by international oil price transmission, domestic gasoline prices changed from a 12.6% increase the previous month to a 0.3% decrease, leading to a decrease of 0.01 percentage point in the month-on-month CPI. Post-holiday travel season led to a decrease of 0.1% in service prices, impacting the month-on-month CPI by 0.03 percentage point. Seasonal changes in clothing led to a 0.6% increase in clothing prices, while strong demand for AI-related products led to a 1.6% increase in mobile phone prices and a 1.1% increase in tablet prices, resulting in a 0.05 percentage point increase in the month-on-month CPI. Food prices decreased by 0.4%, with vegetable prices dropping by 3.6% and pork prices decreasing by 1.6%, leading to a 0.07 percentage point decrease in the month-on-month CPI. Year-on-year, the national CPI increased by 1.2%, with industrial consumer goods prices rising by 3.9%. Prices of some industrial products rose due to low base comparison from the previous year, with gasoline prices up by 23.5% and gold jewelry prices down to 39.0%. Service prices increased by 0.8%, with transportation services up by 2.8%. Food prices decreased by 1.7%, with pork prices dropping by 16.1% and fruit prices down by 2.2%. In terms of month-on-month changes, the national PPI increased by 0.5%, with some industries seeing price increases due to optimized industrial structure and increased seasonal demand. Prices in industries such as black metal smelting and processing, colored metal, and electrical machinery rose, while prices in the petroleum and natural gas industries fell. Year-on-year, the national PPI increased by 3.9%, with industries like metal ore mining and smelting seeing significant increases. Industries such as non-metallic mineral products and automobile manufacturing witnessed price decreases. Source: National Bureau of Statistics; Edited by Huang Xiaodong.