Mubasher: China’s inflation stabilised on an annualised basis in June, while food costs continued to rise, according to data released on Wednesday.

Consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose by 2.7% year-on-year last June, recording the same increase as that of the prior month, China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

Food prices climbed by an annual 8.3% last month, compared with a growth of 7.7% last month, yet they inched down by 0.3% on a month-on-month basis.

Fruit prices hit a record peak by jumping 42.7% from a lower base in the previous year, while they surged 5.1% month-on-month.

For the first half of the year, CPI climbed by 2.2%, compared with the same half of last year.

By 10:00 am GMT, the Chinese yuan (CNY) strengthened against the US dollar, with the USD/CNY pair falling by 0.08% to CNY 6.8822.