According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS), which published its September figures on 14 October 2026, consumer prices rose 0.9% on a year earlier, after 0.8% in August, and 0.2% on the previous month; producer prices rose 5.0% on a year earlier and 1.2% on the month, the highest year-on-year reading in the three years shown in Figure 1.1 Food prices were 1.7% lower than a year earlier, with pork down 10.0%, while non-food prices rose 1.5%; the CPI excluding food and energy rose 1.0%. On the producer side the increase was concentrated upstream: prices of means of production rose 6.5% and mining prices 25.4%, while prices of consumer goods fell 0.1%, and industrial purchase prices rose 6.9%. The PPI turned positive in March 2026 (0.5%) after negative readings in every month from October 2023 to February 2026; over January–September 2026 it averaged 2.3% above a year earlier, against 0.9% for the CPI.2 Both releases note that the indexes have been compiled on a 2025 base since January 2026, a change that NBS estimates moved the monthly year-on-year rates by about 0.06 percentage points for the CPI and 0.08 for the PPI on average. The releases do not discuss the reasons for these changes, and this note only summarises the published figures.
Notes
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National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2026年9月份居民消费价格同比上涨0.9% (Consumer prices in September 2026 rose 0.9% year on year), 14 October 2026, https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/zxfb/202610/t20261014_1965477.html, and 2026年9月份工业生产者出厂价格同比上涨5.0% 环比上涨1.2% (Producer prices for industrial products in September 2026 rose 5.0% year on year and 1.2% month on month), 14 October 2026, https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/zxfb/202610/t20261014_1965476.html. The English versions had not been posted when this note was written; figures are taken from the Chinese releases. ↑
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Monthly year-on-year rates as first published in each NBS release, October 2023 – September 2026: data (CSV, with the release link for every month). ↑