Chinese consumer prices fell in January at their quickest rate in more than 14 years, data showed Thursday, as the country's leaders struggle to revive buying sentiment in the world's second-biggest economy. The reading will likely add to calls for officials to do more to breathe life into the economy, with central bank interest rate cuts and measures to boost lending having little impact so far. The 0.
8 percent drop in the consumer price index, revealed by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), marked the fourth straight month of deflation and was much bigger than the 0.5 percent fall forecast in a survey by Bloomberg News. And a 2.5 percent plunge in the producer price index (PPI) -- which measures the cost of goods leaving factories -- signalled continued weakness. China slipped into deflation in July for the first time since 2021 and -- apart from a brief rebound in August -- have been in constant decline since. Prices, which fell by 5.9 percent year-on-year, the lowest level on record," Lynn Song, Chief Economist, Greater China, at bank ING, said in a not