Chinese consumer price inflation rose less than expected in the 12 months to April, increasing 2.3%. The figure, below the 2.4% increase expected, saw the annual rate hold steady for a third consecutive month.
Continuing the pattern of past CPI reports, there was a sharp divergence between food and non-food inflation.
Led by an enormous 33.5% increase in pork prices, up from 28.4% in March, food prices increased by 7.4% from a year earlier, slowing fractionally from 7.6% pace reported previously.
At the other end of the spectrum, non-food inflation remained soft, increasing 1.1% from April 2016. It continued the pattern of the past 12 months where the annual figure has oscillated in a thin range between 0.9% to 1.2%. 
By region, prices in urban areas rose by 2.3%, outpaced by a 2.4% gain in rural regions.
On a month-by-month basis, prices fell by 0.2%, matching expectations. It followed a 0.4% contraction in March.
While the CPI figure was slightly below expectations, there was better news on upstream price pressures with producer price deflation coming in at 3.4%. The decrease, narrower than the 4.3% decline registered in March, was well ahead of expectations for a decrease of 3.8%.
The decrease in producer price deflation also marked the shallowest year-on-year decline since December 2014.
Fitting with the recent recovery in bulk commodity prices, at least until recent sessions, raw material prices fell by 7.7% from a year earlier, the smallest year-on-year decline registered in the past 12 months.
China CPI PPI April 20161Business Insider Australia
There has been next to no market reaction to the data release.
Read the original article on Business Insider Australia. Copyright 2016. Follow Business Insider Australia on Twitter.

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