THE country’s factory-gate inflation in February stayed flat from a month earlier, while gains in consumer prices slipped to the lowest level in more than a year as muted price pressures point to lackluster demand in the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s producer price index (PPI) in February rose 0.1 percent year on year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Friday, the slowest pace since September 2016, and compared with a 0.1-percent increase in January.

Analysts polled previously had expected producer inflation would pick up to 0.2 percent.

On a monthly basis, producer prices have already been falling over the past four months.

The consumer price index (CPI) in February rose 1.5 percent from a year earlier, the slowest since January 2018 and dragged lower by easing food price inflation.

That compared with a 1.7-percent increase in January and was below the government target of around 3 percent this year. Analysts had expected it to have eased to 1.5 percent.

(SD-Agencies)