Consumer Prices for December 2021

National Bureau of Statistics of China 2022-01-13 10:00 Print| Large| Medium| Small

In December 2021, the national Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 1.5 percent year on year. Among them, the prices in urban and rural areas rose by 1.6 and 1.2 percent; the prices of food prices fell by 1.2 percent, and non-food prices rose by 2.1 percent; both the prices of consumer goods and service rose by 1.5 percent.

In December, the national consumer price fell by 0.3 percent month on month. Among them, the decline was 0.3 percent in urban areas and 0.3 percent in rural areas; food prices fell by 0.6 percent, and non-food prices fell by 0.2 percent; consumer goods prices fell by 0.4 percent and service prices were flat.

In 2021, the national consumer price increased by 0.9 percent over the previous year.

I. Year-on-Year Changes of Prices of Different Categories

In December, the prices of food, tobacco and alcohol decreased by 0.1 percent year-on-year, affecting the CPI to decline by about 0.03 percentage point. Among foodstuff, the price of livestock meat decreased by 22.2 percent, affecting the CPI decline by about 0.94 percentage point, of which the price of pork decreased by 36.7 percent, affecting the CPI down by about 0.81 percentage point; egg prices rose by 12.7 percent, affecting CPI up by about 0.08 percentage point; the price of fresh vegetables increased by 10.6 percent, affecting the increase of CPI by about 0.23 percentage point; the price of aquatic products increased by 7.9 percent, affecting the CPI increase by about 0.14 percentage point; fresh fruit prices rose by 4.8 percent, affecting CPI up by about 0.09 percentage point; grain prices rose by 2.0 percent, affecting CPI up by about 0.04 percentage point.

The prices of the other seven categories rose six and fell one year-on-year. Among them, the prices of transportation and communication, education, culture and entertainment and housing increased by 5.0, 3.1 and 1.6 percent respectively, and the prices of daily necessities and services, health care and clothing increased by 0.8, 0.7 and 0.6 percent respectively; prices of other supplies and services decreased by 0.5 percent.

II. Month-on-Month Changes of Prices of Different Categories

In December, the prices of food, tobacco and alcohol decreased by 0.3 percent month on month, affecting the decline of CPI by about 0.09 percentage point. Among foodstuff, the price of fresh vegetables decreased by 8.3 percent, affecting the decline of CPI by about 0.21 percentage point; egg prices fell by 1.8 percent, affecting CPI down by about 0.01 percentage point; fresh fruit prices rose by 3.4 percent, affecting CPI up by about 0.06 percentage point; grain prices rose by 0.6 percent, affecting CPI up by about 0.01 percentage point; the price of livestock meat increased by 0.5 percent, affecting the increase of CPI by about 0.02 percentage point, of which the price of pork increased by 0.4 percent, affecting the increase of CPI by about 0.01 percentage point; the price of aquatic products rose by 0.3 percent, affecting the CPI rise by about 0.01 percentage point.

The prices of the other seven categories rose two, leveled two and fell three month on month. Among them, the prices of daily necessities and services and clothing increased by 0.3 and 0.1 percent respectively; the prices of education, culture, entertainment and health care were flat; the prices of transportation and communications, housing, other supplies and services decreased by 1.3, 0.1 and 0.1 percent respectively.

Consumer Prices in December

	M/M (%)	Y/Y (%)	2021
	M/M (%)	Y/Y (%)	Growth Rate (%)

Consumer Prices	-0.3	1.5	0.9
Of which: Urban	-0.3	1.6	1.0
Rural	-0.3	1.2	0.7
Of which: Food	-0.6	-1.2	-1.4
Non food	-0.2	2.1	1.4
Of which: Consumer Goods	-0.4	1.5	0.9
Services	0.0	1.5	0.9
Of which: Excluding Food and Energy	0.0	1.2	0.8
By Commodity Categories
I. Food, Tobacco and Liquor	-0.3	-0.1	-0.3
Grain	0.6	2.0	1.1
Cooking Oil	0.4	6.4	6.9
Fresh Vegetables	-8.3	10.6	5.6
Meat	0.5	-22.2	-17.2
Of which: Pork	0.4	-36.7	-30.3
Beef	0.3	1.3	3.0
Mutton	0.6	0.4	5.3
Aquatic Products	0.3	7.9	9.4
Eggs	-1.8	12.7	10.8
Dairy products	0.4	1.4	1.8
Fresh Fruits	3.4	4.8	2.8
Tobacco	0.1	1.6	1.2
Liquor	0.0	2.1	2.1
II. Clothing	0.1	0.6	0.3
Clothing	0.1	0.7	0.4
Shoes	0.2	0.1	-0.2
III. Residence	-0.1	1.6	0.8
House Renting	-0.2	0.7	0.4
Water, Electricity, and Fuel	-0.2	3.9	1.8
IV. Household Articles and Services	0.3	0.8	0.4
Household Appliances	0.6	2.0	0.8
Household Services	0.6	3.4	2.7
V. Transportation and Communication	-1.3	5.0	4.1
Transportation Facilities	0.0	1.0	-0.5
Fuels for Vehicles	-5.2	22.5	17.1
Vehicle Use and Maintenance	0.2	1.8	1.5
Communication Facilities	-0.1	-4.3	3.5
Communication Services	0.0	-0.3	-0.3
Postal Services	0.0	0.1	-0.1
VI. Education, Culture and Recreation	0.0	3.1	1.9
Education Services	0.0	2.7	2.2
Tourism	0.0	7.5	1.4
VII. Health Care	0.0	0.7	0.4
Traditional Chinese Medicines	0.1	1.8	1.7
Western Medicines	-0.2	-1.0	-1.1
Health Care Services	0.1	1.1	0.8
VIII. Other Articles and Services	-0.1	-0.5	-1.3

Annotations:

1. Explanatory Notes

Consumer Price Index (CPI) is an index measuring changes over time in the price level of consumer goods and services purchased by residents, which comprehensively reflects the changes of price level.

2. Statistical Coverage

Consumer Price Index (CPI) covers the prices of goods and services of 8 categories and 268 basic divisions which cover the living consumption of urban and rural residents, including food, tobacco and liquor; clothing; residence; household articles and services; transportation and communication; education, culture and recreation; health care; other articles and services.

3. Survey Methods

According to the principle of "fixed person, fixed point and fixed time", people are directly sent to the survey sites or collect the original price from the Internet. The data comes from about 500 cities and counties in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and cities) and nearly 100,000 price survey points, including shopping malls (stores), supermarkets, farmers' markets, service outlets and Internet e-commerce.

4. Data Description

Due to "rounding-off", sometimes the aggregate data is the same as the high or low value of the classified data.

5. Base Period Rotation

According to the regulations of the statistical system, China's CPI has a base period rotation every five years. In January 2021, CPI with 2020 as the base period will be compiled and released. Compared with the last round of the base period, the survey classification catalogue, representative specifications and survey outlets in the new base period have been adjusted, and the classification weight has also changed to reflect the latest changes in the consumption structure of residents. It is estimated that the average impact of the base period rotation on the CPI year-on-year index is about 0.03 percentage point.