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![Customers purchase fruits in a supermarket in Cangzhou, north China’s Hebei province [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/133845100_14181886584521n.jpg)
Customers purchase fruits in a supermarket in Cangzhou, north China’s Hebei province [Xinhua]
Food prices, which account for nearly one-third of weighting in China’s CPI, increased 1.1 per cent year on year. On a monthly basis, consumer prices in January edged up 0.3 per cent.
The NBS attributed the tempering growth to retreating food prices due to warmer weather during the period. A bigger comparison base last year, and global oil prices also helped drag down the price levels.
Meanwhile, China’s producer price index (PPI), which measures wholesale inflation, plunged 4.3 per cent year on year in January, marking the 35th straight month of decline, pointing to continued weak market demand.
China’s economy grew 7.4 per cent in 2014, the weakest annual expansion in 24 years, and a string of economic indicators for the new year, including manufacturing and trade data, all suggested continued weakness.
In the latest move to support growth, the central bank last week decided to lower reserve requirement ratio (RRR), the minimum level of reserves banks must hold, by 50 basis points from Feb. 5, the first universal RRR cut since May 2012.
