Beijing, October 14 (QNA) - China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 0.9% year-on-year in September on higher energy and industrial consumer goods prices, official data showed on Wednesday.
On a monthly basis, the CPI increased 0.2%, with the growth rate narrowing by 0.2 percentage points from the previous month, according to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
In the first nine months of 2026, consumer prices rose 0.9% from a year earlier.
The year-on-year increase in September was mainly driven by higher energy and industrial consumer goods prices, while falling food prices weighed on overall inflation, NBS statistician Dong Lijuan noted.
Gasoline prices surged 16.6% year-on-year, contributing approximately 0.47 percentage points to the overall CPI increase, the data revealed. Prices of industrial consumer goods, excluding energy, rose 1.6% year-on-year, contributing about 0.39 percentage points to the CPI growth.
Service prices increased by 0.8%, unchanged from August, contributing around 0.4 percentage points to the CPI increase. Travel-related service prices climbed 2.1%, while medical service prices were up by 4%.
Food prices, meanwhile, fell 1.7% year-on-year, with the decline widening by 0.3 percentage points from August, dragging down the overall CPI by approximately 0.29 percentage points.
On a month-on-month basis, higher prices of industrial consumer goods and food helped push up the CPI, while seasonal declines in travel-related service prices partly offset the increases, the NBS said. (QNA)