SCIO briefing on China’s economic performance in Aug.

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Speaker:
Liu Aihua, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics

Chairperson:
Xi Yanchun, vice director-general of the Press Bureau, State Council Information Office

Date:
Sept. 14, 2017

Phoenix TV:

We have noticed that the PPI rose to 6.3 percent in August after three consecutive months of flat growth. What do you think of the rebound of PPI in the case of the overall decline of growth rates of several major indexes, involving the just-mentioned investment, consumption, imports and exports? Thank you.

Liu Aihua:

Thank you for your question. PPI had a year-on-year growth rate of 6.3 percent in August, and the growth rate has slightly expanded compared with last month. And its month-on-month growth rate is also slightly expanding. Why? I think there are two main reasons.

First, the domestic supply-side structural reform has continued to advance. In terms of PPI's internal structure, PPI's rise is actually a structural boost. In August, the rise of PPI mainly came from the means of production, while the growth rate from consumer goods were relatively stable.

Second, changes in the prices of major international commodities had an impact on the rebound of PPI. Data from relevant international organizations show that in August there were a rise in prices of many upstream products. This was mainly caused by the recent sustained recovery of world economy and the steadily expanding of international markets which has a great demand for China's raw materials.

Here are some examples. The international energy price rose by 4.4 percent in August, the metal and mineral price by 8.2 percent, and the raw material price by 2.3 percent. The prices of major international commodities also rose in varying degrees. This impact of external factors cannot be ignored, either. In general, both domestic and international factors have contributed to the rebound of PPI in August.

Over the next period, the rise of PPI will have pushing-up factors and pulling-down factors. The pushing-up factors will include the just-mentioned sustained advancing of domestic supply-side structural reform and the continued rising of major international commodities.

But there will be certain pulling-down factors, too. PPI's year-on-year growth turned from negative to positive for the first time in September last year. This base will appear as a comparatively large increase, which will also have a certain impact on PPI's year-on-year growth in September this year.

So from a whole point of view, the trend of PPI is yet to be seen. Thank you.