RTTNews | Jan 12, 2022 01:14AM EST

01:14 Wednesday, January 12, 2022 (RTTNews.com) - China inflation eased more than expected at the end of 2021 largely due to the fall in food prices and factory gate inflation moderated further, official data revealed on Wednesday.

Consumer price inflation slowed to 1.5 percent in December from 2.3 percent in November, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The rate was expected to slow to 1.8 percent.

Food prices fell 1.2 percent from a year earlier and non-food prices advanced 2.1 percent.

Core inflation that excludes volatile food and energy prices, held steady at 1.2 percent in December.

On a monthly basis, overall consumer prices decreased 0.3 percent, confounding expectations for an increase of 0.2 percent. Headline inflation will remain below 2 percent throughout most of this year, Sheana Yue and Julian Evans-Pritchard, economists at Capital Economics, said. In a separate communiqu, the NBS reported that factory gate inflation dropped to 10.3 percent in December from 12.9 percent a month ago. Inflation was seen at 11.1 percent.

Factory gate inflation will probably trend down further over the coming months, economists at Capital Economics, said.

Admittedly, there is a risk that worsening virus outbreaks could result in renewed disruptions to supply chains, they noted. But base effects will start to weigh heavily on the headline PPI rate this quarter.

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