China's consumer inflation rate hits 5-year low

China's consumer inflation rate slowed to a five-year low in November at 1.4 percent from a year earlier, official data showed Wednesday.
The consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, marked a slowdown from October's 1.6 percent expansion and the slowest rise since November 2009, when it increased 0.6 percent on the year, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.
In the first 11 months, the index grew 2.0 percent year on year, which was far below the government's inflation target of 3.5 percent for 2014.
Food prices, which account for a third of the basket of goods in China's CPI calculation, rose 2.3 percent year-on-year last month, compared with 2.5 percent in October.
The producer price index, a key gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, fell 2.7 percent in November from the year before, following the 2.2-percent drop in October. The producer price index shrank for the 33th straight month and at a faster pace than the previous month.
The results raised the probability of more easing measures by the central bank, state-run Xinhua News Agency said. Yu Qiumei, senior statistician of the bureau, attributed the record low inflation level to seasonal and international factors, according to Xinhua.
Good weather conditions contributed to the slower food price increases, it said. Subdued non-food inflation mainly came from falling fuel prices, which dropped by 8.3 percent. Last month, the slump in international crude oil prices brought down domestic gasoline and diesel prices.