Mubasher: China’s consumer inflation gained momentum in June after stabilising for two months, on the back of food prices sustained their gains following a long period of time, according to official data on Tuesday.

China’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.9% year-on-year in June, compared to an annual 1.8% increase in May, the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) stated, while the government aims to keep it below 3% in the current year.

On a monthly basis, the CPI shed 0.1% in the sixth month of 2018, after falling 0.2% in the previous month.

The key inflation rate came slightly higher than a 1.8% gain expected by a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) poll.

Food prices edged up 0.3% in June, compared to the same month last year, after rising annually 0.1% in the previous month. Non-food prices climbed 2.2% in June from a year earlier, the same yearly growth in the prior month.

Price gains for eggs and fresh vegetables bolstered China’s consumer inflation last month, Sheng Guoqing, an economist at the statistics bureau, said in a statement accompanying the data.

Moreover, the producer price index (PPI) rose 4.7% year-on-year in June, compared to a 4.1% yearly rise in May, while the index went up 0.3% from a month earlier.