Gasoline prices climbed 16.6% in September, adding approximately 0.47 percentage points to China’s year-on-year consumer-price increase, according to Dong Lijuan, chief statistician of the Urban Division at the National Bureau of Statistics. Food prices, meanwhile, fell 1.7% and reduced the consumer-price index by 0.29 percentage points.
The contrast ran through China’s inflation data for September 2026. The producer price index, which tracks prices charged by factories and other producers, rose 5% year-on-year, its quickest increase since June 2022. That was above the 4.5% rise expected by economists surveyed by Reuters and followed a 3.8% increase in August.
Fuel was a central force behind the increase in business costs. The National Bureau of Statistics said coal prices rose with demand for winter heating. Coal mining prices increased 35.3%, while oil and gas extraction prices rose 24.5%.
The acceleration extended across producer categories. Mining prices rose 25.4%, up from 17.8% in August, while raw-material prices rose to 9.4% from 6.7%. Prices of production materials increased 6.5%, compared with 5.0% in August.
The rise marks a break from a prolonged period of falling producer prices. China recorded 21 consecutive months of negative PPI growth beginning in October 2022.
Consumer inflation told a more restrained story. The consumer price index rose 0.9% in September, below economists’ expectation of 1%. The core CPI rate, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, climbed 1%.
Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said the weaker-than-expected CPI reading showed that domestic demand remained lacklustre.
Hao Zhou, chief economist at Guotai Junan International Holdings, saw the stronger PPI reading as evidence that the economy was gradually moving away from deflationary pressures.
The data arrive after China’s gross domestic product grew by 4.3% in the second quarter, missing market expectations and recording its slowest pace in more than three years.
On September 28, the State Council said it would strengthen countercyclical adjustments in response to current economic problems. Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING, said the statement suggested a shift in the government’s language on such measures.
The immediate question is whether higher costs for coal, oil and other inputs can be passed through to households while consumer-price growth remains below expectations.
Comments (0)