The National Bureau of Statistics Survey Office in Hunan announced on April 13 that, the Hunan consumer price (CPI) in March rose 4% year on year (YoY), a decrease of 0.9 percentage points from the previous month. The month-on-month (MoM) changed from a rise of 0.9% last month to a decline of 1.2%. The YoY and MoM changes in CPI showed that provincial CPI uptrend has entered a downward channel.

In March, the provincial work and production resumption gradually accelerated, transportation and logistics recovered, and measures to maintain supply and stabilize prices continued to take effect.

From a YoY perspective, food prices rose by 14.4%, which was 2.7 percentage points narrower than last month. This affected CPI to fall by about 0.61 percentage points. But food was still among the commodities with the largest price increase in Hunan. The 14 sub-categories surveyed showed a “nine rises, four falls, and one flat” trend. Among them, the price of pork increased by 115.5%, which was 24.1 percentage points narrower than last month. However, it was still the most important reason for pushing up food prices. The prices of beef, lamb, chicken, duck, and egg were affected by consumer substitution demand, and continued to remain high, affecting a total increase of about 0.38 percentage points in CPI. The prices of dried fresh fruits and vegetables fell by 9.1% and 6.5% respectively. Their impacts on the CPI decline was about 0.37 percentage points, which was the main factor that inhibited the increase in food prices across the province.

The prices of transportation and communications were mostly affected by the epidemic, with a YoY decrease of 3.6%. Among them, the prices of air tickets, diesel, gasoline, LPG, and small cars decreased by 23.3%, 15.9%, 15.1%, 8.7%, and 3.0% respectively. The prices of dwelling, daily necessities, and service also declined slightly.

In terms of MoM data, the health care price in Hunan rose by 0.3%, the prices of other supplies and services rose by 0.2%, and those of the remaining major commodities fell to varying degrees compared with February. Among them, food prices decreased by 3.1%.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn