Customers buy shoes in a department store in Shanghai, east China, June 9, 2012. China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, slowed to 3.0 percent year-on-year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Saturday. It marked a 17-month-low, easing from April's 3.4 percent and 3.6 percent in March. (Xinhua/Liu Ying)

China's inflation unexpectedly eased to a 17-month low due to falling food prices and base effect, enhancing evidence that the government's policy shift to shore up growth.

The consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, slowed to 3.0 percent in May from a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Saturday. It weakened from April's 3.4 percent and 3.6 percent in March.

Compared with the previous monthly, it edged down 0.3 percent, the NBS said.

The CPI climbed 3.5 percent in the first five months compared with the same period of last year year.

Food prices, which account for nearly one-third of the weighting in the calculation of China's CPI, increased 6.4 percent last month from one year earlier, down from 7 percent in April.

On a monthly basis, food prices dropped 0.9 percent from April, the NBS said.

China's CPI growth eases to 3.0 pct in May

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, slowed to 3.0 percent year-on-year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Saturday.

Compared with the previous monthly, it edged down 0.3 percent in May, the NBS said.

China's PPI down 1.4 pct in May

China's Producer Price Index (PPI), a main gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, fell 1.4 percent in May from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Saturday.

It fell deeper than April's 0.7 percent, and marked another month of year-on-year decline after China's PPI saw a drop in March for the first time since December 2009.

IMF adjusts China growth forecast to 8 pct

China's economic growth will likely moderate to around 8 percent this year amid downward risks caused by the ongoing crisis in Europe, an official from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Friday.

In April, the IMF predicted an annual growth of 8.2 percent for China. David Lipton, First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, who is in Beijing for annual policy dialogue with China, told Xinhua that the latest revision is still a comfortable growth for China under the current circumstances.

Low risk of hard landing for China's economy: UN report

While economic growth in China is projected to moderate to 8.3 percent in 2012, there is a low risk of a hard landing for China's economy, according to a UN report released here on Thursday by the United Nations Department of Social and Economic Affairs (DESA).

China announces 1st rate cut since 2008

A file photo taken on Feb. 23, 2012 shows a pedestrian walking past the headquarters building of the People's Bank of China in Beijing, capital of China. The People's Bank of China, the central bank, announced on June 7, 2012 it would cut the benchmark one-year interest rates for deposits and loans by 25 basis points beginning June 8. (Xinhua/Wan Xiang)

China announced Thursday its first cut in benchmark interest rates in more than three years after slower-than-expected growth in the world's second-largest economy has raised concerns over an abrupt brake. 

China's service sector PMI rises to 19-month high: HSBC

The purchasing managers index (PMI) for China's service sector posted its fastest growth in 19 months in May, rising to 54.7 on improving new businesses, a HSBC report said Tuesday.

The seasonally adjusted index was 0.6 points higher than April's six-month peak.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 suggests contraction.

The report attributed the growth to a significant increase in new orders.