Zhang Jun, Senior Analyst at Morgan Stanley Huaxin Securities says that China’s consumer Price Index (CPI) growth is expected at five per cent in February, narrowing from 5.4 per cent in January, economists forecast.
The weak demand for non-food categories, including catering, transportation and tourism affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak may drag down the CPI growth in February.
But the room for the CPI to fall is limited as the prices of pork and vegetables rose in February according to Zhang.
Also, Lu Zhengwei, the Chief Economist at Industrial Bank, said the decline in the prices of refined oil products would also lead to the drop of CPI growth in February in spite rising food prices.
He said China’s CPI main gauge of inflation, rose by 5.4 per cent year-on-year in January, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The increase was up from 4.5 per cent for December.
