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China narrowly avoided slipping into deflation in December with inflation rising at its slowest pace in nine months, official figures showed on Thursday, as officials struggle to kick-start consumer activity in the world’s number-two economy. The tepid reading comes after Beijing unveiled a range of measures at the end of last year aimed at boosting consumption as well as providing support for the troubled property sector, including interest rate cuts. However, data showed that has not yet filtered through, with the consumer price index (CPI), a key measure of inflation, easing to 0.
1% last month from 0.2% in November, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The reading is the lowest since March.
A survey of economists had forecast 0.2%. For the whole of 2024, prices were up, the same as the previous year.
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