CBN丨China's CPI up 0.1% in December

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.Coming up on today’s programChina’s December CPI rises 0.1% year-on-year, while PPI down 2.3%;PBOC will issue bills worth 60 billion yuan in Hong Kong on Jan 15.Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours China's consumer prices increased modestly in December while factory-gate prices saw a slowdown in annual declines, official data showed on Thursday.The country's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose by 0.1 percent year-on-year in December after a 0.2 percent rise in November, the National Bureau of Statistics said. China's full-year inflation rises 0.2 percent in 2024, in line with the previous year's pace.Within the CPI, food prices dropped 0.5 percent year-on-year in December versus a 1 percent annual growth in November. Meanwhile, non-food prices posted a 0.2 percent rise compared with a year earlier in December.  On a month-on-month basis, the CPI remained unchanged, following a 0.6 percent decline in November. China's producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, dropped by 2.3 percent from a year ago in December, narrowing from a 2.5 percent fall in November. On a month-on-month basis, the PPI dropped 0.1 percent in December after a 0.1 percent rise in November. Dong Lijuan, an NBS statistician, attributed the year-on-year CPI growth to the smooth functioning of the consumer market, while the factory-gate prices declined due to factors including December being the traditional offseason for production for some industries and the international commodity price fluctuations. Meanwhile, Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission(NDRC), China’s state economic planner, vows to expand domestic demand on all fronts this year.In an article he published in the state-backed newspaper People’s Daily today, Zheng wrote that the NDRC would push the implementation of major national strategies and the construction of security capacity in key areas faster and step up efforts on the replacement of existing equipment and devices.The NDRC would also implement special schemes to boost consumption to integrate consumption promotion with livelihood benefits closely. The goal is to maintain stable economic growth and stabilize employment and prices in general, said Zheng.To achieve the target, the NDRC would strengthen counter-cyclical policies, put outstanding policies in place, and introduce timely and practical measures, Zheng added.Greater Bay Area, Greater futureChina plans to issue the biggest ever central bank bills in Hong Kong on Jan. 15. The People's Bank of China said Thursday it will issue 60 billion yuan worth of bills with maturity of six months. The move aims to enrich yuan-investment products with high credit ratings in Hong Kong and improve the yield curve of yuan in the region, the central bank said.Hong Kong will send its largest-ever delegation of 74 athletes to the 2025 Asian Winter Games, which will be held in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, from Feb 7 to 14. They will compete in figure skating, short track speed skating, alpine skiing, speed skating, ice hockey, and for the first time, curling — a sort of bowls on ice.Next on industry and company newsTencent's instant messaging and social media app WeChat was removed from the United States Trade Representative's 2024 "notorious markets" list for the first time after being included twice in 2022 and 2023, according to the latest list released today.The loss of China's civil aviation industry shrank 20.6 billion yuan last year from the one before, achieving an overall turnaround to profitability, according to official data. The number of international passenger flights increased to 6,400 per week in 2024, recovering to 84 percent of the pre-pandemic levels.Alibaba Cloud launched its upgraded AI programming assistant Tongyi Lingma yesterday, aiding human programmers in completing multi-file coding tasks through conversational collaboration with the support of VS Code and JetBrains IDEs development tools.TCL Technology Group is expecting its sales in North America to soar 30 percent in 2025 from last year, thanks to the recent restructuring of the firm’s supply chain and the optimization of its product portfolio, the chairman of the Chinese television manufacturer said. Last year, the firm’s US business should have grown by 20 percent, Li Dongsheng told media at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.BYD unveiled the Xia yesterday, its new multi-purpose vehicle part of its Dynasty series. Priced from 249,800 to 309,800 yuan, the auto comes with the DiPilot 100 intelligent driving assistance system as standard.Merck Sharp & Dohme’s quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine has become the first jab against HPV that has been approved for use on men in China, the US pharmaceutical giant said yesterday.Switching gears to financial newsAlibaba's Tmall has allied with UnionPay to ease users receiving government subsidies through the latter's Cloud QuickPass, becoming the first e-commerce platform providing such a service. This will be first tested in China's Sichuan province before expanding nationwide.Bridgewater Associates widened its lead over global peers in China by around 40 percent last year, after its multi-asset strategy’s stable returns attracted more wealthy local clients in a volatile market. The US giant’s Shanghai-based private fund management arm boosted assets under management to more than 55 billion yuan as of Dec. 31, media reported today.  Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock marketChinese stocks closed mixed on Thursday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite slid 0.6 percent while the Shenzhen Component gained 0.3 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dipped 0.2 percent while the TECH index edged up 0.1 percent.