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Inflation, cost of living falls: NBS

By Qiu Quanlin (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-17 07:39

A sharp drop in Guangdong's cost of living has led to a drop in inflation in Guangdong province.

The consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, fell 1.9 percent in Guangdong year on year, making the province experience its first negative CPI growth since 2003, the provincial survey office under the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.

In the first quarter, the province's cost of living fell 7.7 percent compared to the previous year, the office said.

Leading the CPI's decline was a dramatic 14.9-percent drop in the price of housing in the first quarter amid fears of a continuous slowdown in the real estate market in the Pearl River Delta area.

Related readings:  Guangdong GDP set to grow 8.5%  Guangdong remains China's top economic powerhouse  Guangdong economy to 'recover in April'  Guangdong sets 4 trillion yuan GDP target

Food costs also recorded a fall of 0.2 percent in the province, from an increase of 17.6 percent a year earlier.

Feng Shengping, a researcher with the Guangdong provincial situation study and research center, attributed the negative growth to effective economic management.

"The central and provincial governments' macro-economic control measures have played a significant role in easing consumer price inflation," Feng said.

Along with the CPI decline, Guangdong's producer price index, a gauge of factory gate inflation, fell 4.4 percent year on year in the first quarter, the survey office said.

The price of raw materials and fuel fell 5.3 percent year on year, a dramatic drop of 8.6 percentage points from the fourth quarter of last year.