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Inflation · November 8, 2026 · 2 min read

China October CPI rises 0.7% over the year, flat on the month

By Econ Data Tools Editorial Team

Published November 8, 2026 • Updated November 8, 2026

The November 9 Beijing release shows food prices down 2.9% year over year and non-food prices up 1.5%. Monthly CPI was flat; neither the data nor the calendar date establishes an imminent policy-rate move.

China's consumer price index rose 0.7% from a year earlier in October 2026 and was unchanged from September, according to the National Bureau of Statistics release published November 9 at 09:30 Beijing time. That release arrived during the evening of November 8 in the U.S. Central time zone. The national headline concealed different movements in food and non-food prices. Food prices fell 2.9% year over year, while non-food prices rose 1.5%. Prices of consumer goods increased 0.8%, and services increased 0.7%. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, was up 0.8% over the year. A positive annual CPI reading is not the same as an increase in every household expense. Fresh vegetables were 16.9% cheaper than a year earlier, pork prices fell 8.6%, and fresh fruit prices fell 3.8%. Egg prices, by contrast, rose 10.1%. The official release estimated that the fall in fresh-vegetable prices alone reduced the headline annual CPI change by about 0.31 percentage points. Those figures describe price changes and estimated index contributions, not quantities purchased or changes in household income. On a month-to-month basis, food prices fell 1.0% and non-food prices rose 0.2%, leaving the overall index flat. Consumer-goods prices slipped 0.1%, while service prices rose 0.1%. The flat monthly headline and the 0.7% annual increase use different comparison periods and should not be described as contradictory readings. The NBS said average consumer prices over January through October were 0.9% above the same period in 2025. Its methodology covers eight major spending categories and 268 basic classifications, drawing prices from roughly 120,000 survey locations across around 500 cities and counties in 31 provincial-level regions. From January 2026 the index uses 2025 as its base year; the agency estimates that the base rotation affects monthly year-over-year readings by about 0.06 percentage points on average. This release measures consumer prices, not a central-bank policy decision or market consensus. It does not by itself establish that another reserve-requirement cut or interest-rate move is imminent, that exporters will cut prices, or that any particular industry caused the headline slowdown.

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