THE country’s factory-gate inflation slowed for the fourth month in October on cooling domestic demand and manufacturing activity, signaling China would likely roll out more growth-boosting measures in the face of trade frictions with the United States. Consumer prices, meanwhile, increased at the same pace in October from the previous month with food prices stable, official data from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Friday. The producer price index (PPI), a measure of the prices businesses receive for their goods and services, rose 3.3 percent in October from a year earlier, easing from 3.6 percent in September, the statistics bureau said. Analysts polled previously had expected the October producer price inflation rate — also used by economists as a rough gauge of industrial profit trends — would ease to 3.3 percent. On a month-to-month basis, the PPI increased 0.4 percent. “Rising import prices are likely to put some upward pressure on producer prices, but not enough to prevent PPI inflation from falling,” said Chang Liu, China economist at Capital Economics. “Indeed, we think policymakers will pay more attention to evidence that underlying price pressures remain subdued and will continue to ease policy over the coming months to shore up economic activity.” Raw material prices increased 6.7 percent in October from a year earlier, down from a 7.3 percent gain in September. Inflation in the fuel processing sector and chemicals manufacturing industry slowed in October from the previous month. Analysts believe inflation on both consumer and producer measures is set to cool through the end of the year as China’s economy slows and commodity prices fall. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.5 percent in October from a year earlier, same as September’s rate and analysts’ forecast. On a monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.2 percent, moderated from 0.7-percent gain in the preceding month. The NBS attributed the monthly CPI slowdown to a fall in food prices, which dropped 0.3 percent from September. (SD-Agencies) | 