Inflation in China rose 0.8% in December, a three-year high, but closed 2025 flat

Shanghai (China).- The consumer price index (CPI), the main indicator of inflation in China, continued to accelerate in December to 0.8%, its highest in almost three years, thus ending the year 2025 at the same levels with which the previous one closed, according to official data released this Friday. The figures from the National Statistics Office (ONE) reflect an increase of 0.1 points compared to the November reading and represent the highest mark since February 2023, although they do not meet the expectations of analysts, who expected it to accelerate even further, up to 0.9%.

Throughout the 12 months of the recently concluded year, the Chinese CPI experienced declines in six months - the deepest, that of February, 0.7% - and increases in five.

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The Cause of Rising Inflation in China

While in November the year-on-year comparison had marked highs of a year and a half but the month-on-month had surprised by falling 0.1%, in December both readings were positive, with the latter advancing 0.2%.

ONE statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the year-on-year increase mainly to the rise in food prices, which went from rising 0.2% in November - and, let's remember, falling 2.9% in October - to rising 1.1%, even though pork, the favorite of Chinese consumers, continued to plummet 14.6%.

The government expert also highlights that core inflation, a measurement that excludes energy and precisely food prices due to their volatility, repeated a 1.2% year-on-year increase, marking a fourth consecutive month above 1%.

Fall in industrial prices

The ONE also made public the Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures industrial prices and which in December moderated its fall from 2.2% year-on-year to 1.9%, the least pronounced since mid-2024. The fall, one more in a chain that has been going on since October 2022, was also less pronounced than what analysts anticipated, around 2%.

Dong highlights that the PPI recorded its third consecutive month of intermonthly advance, and when comparing with December 2025, it points to the policies of the Chinese government to curb excessive competition in some sectors, promote new growth engines, or boost consumption.