Consumer Prices for March 2020

National Bureau of Statistics of China 2020-04-13 09:30 Print| Large| Medium| Small

In March 2020, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) went up by 4.3 percent year-on-year, with an increase of 4.0 percent in urban and 5.3 percent in rural. The food prices went up by 18.3 percent, and the non-food prices increased by 0.7 percent. The prices of consumer goods went up by 6.2 percent, and that of services grew by 1.1 percent. From January to March, on average, the overall consumer prices were up by 4.9 percent from the same period of the previous year.

In March, national consumer prices dropped by 1.2 percent month-on-month. Among them, the prices in urban and rural were down by 1.2 and 1.3 percent respectively; the prices of foodstuff decreased by 3.8 percent, that of non-foodstuff decreased by 0.4 percent; and that of consumer goods went down by 1.7 percent, and hat of services fell 0.3 percent.

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

In March, prices of food, tobacco and liquor went up by 13.6 percent year-on-year, affecting nearly 4.10 percentage points increase in the CPI. Of which, livestock meat price up by 78.0 percent, affecting nearly 3.44 percentage points increase in the CPI (price of pork was up by 116.4 percent, affecting nearly 2.79 percentage points increase in the CPI); The price of aquatic products rose by 2.8 percent, affecting nearly 0.05 percentage point increase in the CPI; The price of eggs went up by 1.9 percent, affecting the CPI up by about 0.01 percentage point; Fresh fruit and vegetable prices dropped by 6.1 and 0.1 percent, affecting the CPI down by 0.12 percentage point in total.

Prices in the other seven categories were 4 up and 3 down year on year. In which, the prices of other goods and services, education, culture and entertainment rose by 5.3 and 2.5 percent respectively, and the prices of health care, and daily goods and services rose by 2.2 and 0.3 percent, while that of transportation and communications, clothing and housing fell 3.8, 0.3 and 0.1 percent.

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

In March, food, tobacco and alcohol prices went down by 2.7 percent month-on-month, affecting CPI decrease by 0.90 percentage point. In which, fresh vegetable prices went down by 12.2 percent, affecting CPI down by 0.39 percentage point; Livestock meat prices dropped by 5.2 percent, affecting nearly 0.41 percentage point decrease in the CPI (price of pork was down by 6.9 percent, affecting nearly 0.36 percentage point decrease in the CPI); Egg prices dropped by 4.3 percent, affecting CPI down by 0.02 percentage point; Aquatic products prices fell 3.5 percent, affecting CPI down by 0.07 percentage point.

Other 7 kinds of price went up 2 down 5. In which, prices for other goods and services, and health care jumped by 0.4 and 0.2 percent; while that of transportation and communications, and housing dropped by 2.5 and 0.3 percent; that of clothing, household goods and services, and education, culture and entertainment all went down by 0.1 percent.

Consumer Prices in March

Items	March		Average on Jan-Mar
Items	M/M (%)	Y/Y (%)	Y/Y (%)

Consumer Prices	-1.2	4.3	4.9
Of which: Urban	-1.2	4.0	4.6
Rural	-1.3	5.3	5.9
Of which: Food	-3.8	18.3	20.3
Non food	-0.4	0.7	1.1
Of which: Consumer Goods	-1.7	6.2	7.3
Services	-0.3	1.1	1.1
Of which: Excluding Food and Energy	-0.2	1.2	1.3
Of which: Excluding Fresh Vegetables and Fresh Fruits	-0.9	4.6	5.0
By Commodity Categories
I. Food, Tobacco and Liquor	-2.7	13.6	14.9
Grain	0.0	0.7	0.6
Cooking Oil	-0.1	5.7	5.5
Fresh Vegetables	-12.2	-0.1	9.0
Meat	-5.2	78.0	80.8
Of which: Pork	-6.9	116.4	122.5
Beef	-1.2	21.7	21.0
Mutton	-0.9	12.1	11.2
Aquatic Products	-3.5	2.8	3.1
Eggs	-4.3	1.9	1.8
Dairy products	-0.4	0.6	0.7
Fresh Fruits	-0.2	-6.1	-5.6
Tobacco	0.0	0.7	0.7
Liquor	0.3	2.7	2.8
II. Clothing	-0.1	-0.3	0.2
Clothing	-0.2	-0.2	0.4
Clothing Processing Service	0.1	2.4	2.6
Shoes	-0.1	-0.8	-0.3
III. Residence	-0.3	-0.1	0.2
House Renting	-0.2	-0.2	0.2
Water, Electricity, and Fuel	-0.8	-0.4	0.1
IV. Household Articles and Services	-0.1	0.3	0.2
Household Appliances	-0.1	-1.6	-1.6
Household Services	-0.8	3.1	2.6
V. Transportation and Communication	-2.5	-3.8	-1.5
Transportation Facilities	-0.1	-1.8	-1.8
Fuels for Vehicles	-9.5	-14.6	-3.5
Vehicle Use and Maintenance	-0.5	1.4	1.4
Communication Facilities	-0.3	-3.3	-3.8
Communication Services	0.0	-0.6	-0.6
Postal Services	-0.1	-0.8	-0.8
VI. Education, Culture and Recreation	-0.1	2.5	1.9
Education Services	-0.1	2.3	2.5
Tourism	0.0	8.3	3.3
VII. Health Care	0.2	2.2	2.2
Traditional Chinese Medicines	0.3	2.8	2.9
Western Medicines	0.0	2.0	2.3
Health Care Services	0.1	2.4	2.4
VIII. Other Articles and Services	0.4	5.3	4.9

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 262 basic dishvisions 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

The prices collection units are selected and determined by sample survey methods, and the original data of consumer prices are collected by specific person in fixed place at fixed time. Data are collected from 88,000 prices collection units in 500 cities and counties of the 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), which cover shopping malls, supermarkets, open fairs, service outlets and Internet E-commerce suppliers.

4. Data Description

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