China inflation rebounds, but still at 5-year low level

China's consumer inflation slightly rebounded in December to 1.5 percent from a year earlier, but remained at the slowest level in five years, official data showed Friday.
The consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, edged up from November's 1.4 percent expansion, which was the slowest rise since November 2009, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.
In the whole 2014, the index grew 2.0 percent year on year compared with the 2.6 percent growth in 2013, far below the government's inflation target of 3.5 percent for the year.
Food prices, which account for a third of the basket of goods in China's CPI calculation, rose 2.9 percent year-on-year last month, compared with 2.3 percent in November.
The producer price index, a key gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, fell 3.3 percent in December from the year before, following the 2.7-percent drop in November. The producer price index (PPI) shrank for the 34th straight month and at a fastest pace in more than two years.
Yu Qiumei, senior statistician of the bureau, attributed the weak PPI to the lower prices of refined oil; oil and natural gas; and chemicals, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.