Hong Kong | China’s core inflation cooled to the weakest in more than three years, fuelling calls for greater efforts to boost household spending as weak demand puts the annual growth target under pressure.

The consumer price index excluding volatile food and energy costs rose just 0.3 per cent in August from a year earlier, the least since March 2021, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. The broader CPI increased 0.6 per cent, missing expectations even though it was buoyed by higher food costs due to bad weather last month.

Bloomberg