China’s inflation cooled to a 15- month low and producer-price gains were the smallest in 2 years in December, leaving the government more room to support growth as a global slowdown hurts exports.
Consumer prices rose 4.1 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in Beijing today. That compares with the median estimate of 4 percent in a Bloomberg News survey of 26 economists and 4.2 percent in November.
Today’s data may allow Premier Wen Jiabao to proceed with a shift in policy focus to bolstering expansion as Europe’s debt crisis crimps overseas demand and officials sustain a campaign to cool property prices. Imports and exports increased the least in two years last month, excluding seasonal distortions, and a report next week may show the world’s second-largest economy expanded at the slowest pace in 10 quarters.
