Monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) in China by region September 2024
A regional breakdown of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in China reveals considerable variations across different regions. In September 2024, Ningxia autonomous region displayed a CPI of about 99.6 points (same month previous year = 100), whereas the CPI in Xinjiang reached 101.3 points.Â
Consumer price development in China
The Consumer Price Index measures the average changes over time in the price level of a market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by consumers. It is closely related to the inflation rate. The consumer inflation rate is derived from the annual percentage increase of the CPI. After 2011, China experienced a slight decrease in domestic inflation. Between 2014 and 2018, the annual inflation rate ranged at around two percent or lower. In 2019, inflation increased again to 2.9 percent and remained high during 2020, but is forcast to decrease in the coming years. Monthly inflation rates peaked at 5.4 percent in January 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but declined quickly in the following months and reached negative values in November 2020.
Regional and sectoral inflation rates
In recent years, inflation rates in the largest cities and developed regions often remained below those in developing regions in the inner provinces. The CPI in rural regions was on average slightly higher than in urban areas. The annual CPI of food, tobacco and liquor in China ranged among the highest during 2020 - mainly driven by rising pork and meat prices, whereas the transportation and communication’s CPI was one of the lowest. With the travel sector recovering from the coronavirus pandemic in the first half of 2021, monthly prices for transportation started to increase again.