CHINA’S inflation rate eased to a 15-month low in December, though sticky food prices are a reminder of the risks the government is weighing as it tilts policy towards boosting growth as internal and external demand for Chinese goods falters.

    The consumer price inflation hit 4.1 percent last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

    The annual rate of producer price inflation, at 1.7 percent, came in just below forecasts of 1.8 percent, underscoring the potential for downside surprises for corporate China as a deteriorating global backdrop knocks demand for goods from the factories of the world’s second-largest economy.

    The December inflation figure was the closest it came in 2011 to hitting the official target of 4 percent, leaving the average rate for 2011 at 5.4 percent.

    In month-on-month terms, the consumer price index rose 0.3 percent in December from November, after a 0.2 percent fall in November.

    An uptick in the annual rate of food inflation to 9.1 percent from November’s 8.8 percent — the lowest since September 2010 — would be troubling for the government if it signaled a rebounding trend in the cost of basic foodstuffs.

    Annual food inflation hit a high of 14.8 percent in July 2011, driving overall consumer prices to a three-year peak of 6.5 percent.(SD-Agencies)