Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on January 9th showed that in December 2025, the national Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 0.2% month-on-month and rose by 0.8% year-on-year; the Industrial Producer Price Index (PPI) increased by 0.2% month-on-month and decreased by 1.9% year-on-year. For the full year of 2025, the CPI remained flat compared to the previous year, while the PPI fell by 2.6%.
"In December 2025, policies and measures to expand domestic demand and promote consumption continued to show effects, coupled with the approaching New Year's Day which increased residents' consumer demand, both the month-on-month and year-on-year CPI saw increases," said Dong Lijuan, Chief Statistician of the Urban Department of the National Bureau of Statistics. "The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 1.2% year-on-year, with the growth rate remaining above 1% for four consecutive months."
Dong Lijuan analyzed that the year-on-year CPI increase was 0.1 percentage points wider than the previous month, rising to the highest level since March 2023. The expansion of the year-on-year increase was primarily driven by a widening rise in food prices. Food prices increased by 1.1%, with the growth rate expanding by 0.9 percentage points from the previous month, contributing approximately 0.17 percentage points more to the year-on-year CPI increase compared to last month.
Specifically, within the food category, the price increases for fresh vegetables and fresh fruits expanded to 18.2% and 4.4% respectively, together contributing about 0.16 percentage points more to the year-on-year CPI increase than the previous month. Prices for beef, mutton, and aquatic products rose by 6.9%, 4.4%, and 1.6% respectively, with their growth rates all widening. Pork prices fell by 14.6%, but the rate of decline narrowed slightly.
On a month-on-month basis, the CPI shifted from a 0.1% decrease in the previous month to a 0.2% increase.
"The month-on-month increase was mainly influenced by rising prices of industrial consumer goods excluding energy," Dong Lijuan said. "Prices for industrial consumer goods excluding energy rose by 0.6%, contributing about 0.16 percentage points to the month-on-month CPI increase. Among these, the effects of policies to boost consumption continued to manifest, and with the New Year holiday approaching, increasing residents' demand for shopping and entertainment led to price increases for communication devices, maternal and infant products, recreational durable consumer goods, and household appliances. Influenced by rising international gold prices, domestic gold jewelry prices increased by 5.6%."
Affected by factors such as the transmission of international commodity prices and the ongoing effects of policies related to capacity management in key domestic industries, the PPI in December 2025 rose by 0.2% month-on-month, marking the third consecutive month of increase, with the growth rate expanding by 0.1 percentage points from the previous month.
Dong Lijuan analyzed that the comprehensive effects of capacity management in key industries and the ongoing rectification of market competition order continue to show results. Prices for coal mining and washing, as well as coal processing, have risen for five consecutive months on a monthly basis; prices for lithium-ion battery manufacturing and cement manufacturing have both increased for three consecutive months; prices for new energy vehicle manufacturing shifted from a 0.2% decrease last month to a 0.1% increase. Rising international non-ferrous metal prices drove domestic prices for non-ferrous metal mining and processing, and non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling, to increase by 3.7% and 2.8% month-on-month, respectively.
Year-on-year, in December 2025, the PPI decreased by 1.9%, with the rate of decline narrowing by 0.3 percentage points compared to the previous month.
The deepening advancement of the national unified market construction has led to a continuous narrowing of the year-on-year price declines in related industries. The price decline rates for coal mining and washing, lithium-ion battery manufacturing, and photovoltaic equipment and component manufacturing narrowed by 2.9, 1.2, and 0.4 percentage points respectively compared to the previous month, marking consecutive narrowing for 5 months, 4 months, and 9 months, respectively.
The cultivation and growth of new quality productive forces have driven year-on-year price increases in related industries. Prices for external storage devices and components rose by 15.3%, biomass liquid fuels increased by 9.0%, graphite and carbon product manufacturing rose by 5.5%, finished integrated circuit prices increased by 2.4%, the waste resource comprehensive utilization industry saw a 0.9% price increase, and service consumer robot manufacturing prices rose by 0.4%.
The effective release of consumption potential has driven year-on-year price increases in relevant industries. Prices for arts, crafts, and ceremonial goods manufacturing rose by 23.3%, sports ball manufacturing prices increased by 4.0%, traditional Chinese musical instrument manufacturing prices rose by 2.0%, and nutritional food manufacturing prices increased by 1.5%.