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The continued easing of China's consumer inflation, which hit a seven-month low in April, has provided more space for the country to roll out a much-needed economic stimulus package, analysts said on Tuesday.
The consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 3.3 percent year-on-year in April, the lowest level in seven months and down from 4.3 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.
The easing of inflationary pressure mainly resulted from increased food supply as many enterprises resume operations and people's lives are getting back to normal, said Dong Lijuan, a senior NBS statistician.
Food prices increased by 14.8 percent year-on-year in April, down by 3.5 percentage points from March. The surge in pork prices, the biggest contributor to rising consumption inflation, abated to 96.9 percent, compared with 116.4 percent a month earlier, the bureau reported.
Analysts said the CPI reading may continue to fall in the coming months partly thanks to the increased food supply and a high base of pork prices.
"The slowdown in inflation has created a favorable condition for ramping up economic stimulus," said Liu Xuezhi, a senior researcher at the Bank of Communications' Financial Research Center.
"It also underscored the need to do so, as the declining non-food inflation indicated that the recovery in demand has been slower than supply," Liu said.
The package may total more than 10 trillion yuan ($1.41 trillion), the equivalent of about one-tenth of the country's annual GDP and compared with 7.2 trillion yuan last year, according to a CITIC Securities report.
Other measures to inject growth momentum may also be unveiled at the upcoming meeting of the national legislature, the report said.
China is planning to roll out more measures to support the construction of strategic emerging industrial clusters to cushion the impact of the epidemic, the country's top economic regulator said on Tuesday.
"Building emerging industrial clusters of strategic importance is vital to promoting high-quality development of strategic emerging industries," said Zhao Chenxin, deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission.
Zhao said the NDRC will make a big push to stimulate the vitality of enterprises, give full play to the guiding role of government-backed funds, and increase public support to foster high-quality development of strategic emerging industries.
"The key in price level management will be preventing deflationary risks for the rest of the year," said Zhang Deli, chief macroeconomic analyst at Guangdong province-based Yuekai Securities.
