4. The decrement rate of consumer prices (year-on-year change) reduced, month-on-month change went up.

In August, the consumer price index went down by 1.2 percent year-on-year (it was 4.8 percent growth in August 2008), or the decrement rate narrowed by 0.6 percentage point over that in the previous month. In August, the price dropped by 1.3 percent in cities and 1.0 percent in rural areas year-on-year. The food price went up by 0.5 percent while the non-food price dropped by 2.0 percent. The prices of consumer goods went down by 1.1 percent, and the prices of services down by 1.5 percent. In the first eight months, the year-on-year change of consumer price was down by 1.2 percent (it was 7.3 percent growth the same period a year ago), or maintained the same level over that in the first seven months of this year. Grouped by commodity categories, in August, of the eight categories of commodities, three of them experienced prices rise and the rest five witnessed prices decline. Of which, prices for food up by 0.5 percent, prices for tobacco, liquor and articles up by 1.3 percent, price for clothing went down by 2.2 percent, prices for household facilities, articles and maintenance services down by 0.7 percent, health care and personal articles up by 0.9 percent; clothing down by percent, transportation and communication down by 2.9 percent, recreation, education, culture articles and services down by 0.9 percent, and housing down by 5.4 percent.

In August this year, month-on-month change of consumer price was up by 0.5 percent. Of which, price in cities went up by 0.4 percent and that in rural areas went up by 0.6 percent. The food price went up by 1.3 percent while the non-food price up by 0.1 percent. The price of consumer goods went up by 0.6 percent, and the price of services up by 0.1 percent. Grouped by commodity categories, in August, prices for food up by 1.3 percent month-on-month, prices for tobacco, liquor and articles up by 0.3 percent, price for clothing went down by 0.3 percent, prices for household facilities, articles and maintenance services down by 0.1 percent, health care and personal articles up by 0.1 percent; transportation and communication down by 0.3 percent, recreation, education, culture articles and services maintained unchanged, and housing up by 0.5 percent.

5. The decrement of producers’ prices for manufactured goods (year-on-year change) narrowed down, the month-on-month change continued to rise.

In August, the producers’ prices for manufactured goods went down by 7.9 percent year-on-year (it was 10.1 percent growth in August 2008), or the decrement rate was 0.3 percentage point less that in the previous month. In the first eight months of this year, the year-on-year change of the producers’ price for manufactured good was down by 6.4 percent (it was up 8.2 percent the same period a year ago), which was 0.2 percentage points lower over that in the first seven months of this year. The producers’ prices for means of production went down by 9.7 percent year-on-year in August, of which that for mining and quarrying industry down by 25.9 percent, raw materials industry down 11.5 percent and processing industry down by 6.9 percent. The producers’ prices for means of livelihood dropped by 1.9 percent, of which, the food prices down by 2.3 percent, clothing 0.4 percent, articles for daily use down by 1.8 percent and durable consumer goods down by 2.3 percent. In August, the month-on-month change of the producers’ prices for manufactured good went up by 0.8 percent, which was the fifth consecutive month of growth.

In August, the purchaser’s prices for raw materials, fuel and power decreased by 11.4 percent year-on-year (it was up 15.3 percent in August 2008), the decrement was 0.3 percentage point less over that in the previous month. In the first eight months of this year, the purchaser’s prices for raw materials, fuel and power decreased by 9.4 percent year-on-year (it was up 12.2 percent in the same period of last year), or 0.2 percentage point lower than that in the first seven months of this year. In August, the year-on-year change of prices for nonferrous metals, fuel and power, ferrous metals and raw chemical materials and wire went down by 20.9 percent, 17.0 percent, 19.2 percent and 11.3 percent respectively.