China’s CPI growth accelerates in January on holiday spending

BEIJING, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) — China’s consumer inflation rose faster in January, driven by a surging demand for travel, dining and shopping during the Spring Festival holiday, the country’s most celebrated festival.

China’s consumer price index (CPI), a main inflation gauge, was up 0.5 percent year on year in January, up from a 0.1 percent increase in December, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Sunday.

NBS statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the year-on-year CPI rise to higher service and food prices during the holiday and a rebound in gasoline prices.

In breakdown, service prices rose 1.1 percent year on year last month, while food prices climbed 0.4 percent.

On a monthly basis, the CPI expanded 0.7 percent in January, with service prices accounting for more than half of the overall CPI increase, contributing about 0.37 percentage points.

The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.6 percent from a year ago in January, up from a 0.4 percent increase in December 2024.

The holiday economy remained strong, with tourism and consumer spending hitting record highs. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, China saw a record 501 million domestic tourist trips during the eight-day holiday, which concluded on Tuesday, up 5.9 percent year on year.

Tourist spending reached a record high of over 677 billion yuan (94.42 billion U.S. dollars), a 7 percent increase from the previous year.

Meanwhile, key retail and catering enterprises tracked by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) reported a 4.1 percent year-on-year rise in sales during the holiday, reflecting steady consumer momentum.

The holiday consumer market was vibrant and thriving, with a strong momentum in service consumption, MOC spokesperson He Yongqian told a press conference on Thursday.

To stimulate domestic demand and support economic recovery, China launched a major program in 2024 to promote large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins. This program encourages factories to replace old machines with more advanced ones, while individual consumers can enjoy subsidies on automobiles, home appliances and more.

Fueled by these policies and festive consumer enthusiasm, spending on food, festive goods, and smart home appliances was particularly robust during the Spring Festival holiday. Sales of home appliances and communication devices at key retailers tracked by the MOC rose by over 10 percent year on year.

As the policy promoting trade-ins for consumer goods continues to expand and various consumption-boosting activities unfold, the consumer market is expected to maintain steady growth in the first quarter, He added.

Sunday’s data also showed the country’s producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 2.3 percent year on year in January, flat with that in December last year. On a month-on-month basis, the PPI dropped 0.2 percent in January.

Dong attributed the decrease to the off-season industrial production during the holiday period.

Analysts forecast that driven by proactive macroeconomic policies and the steady recovery of domestic demand, the CPI and PPI are expected to sustain their moderate rebound throughout 2025.