BEIJING   -   China’s consumer inflation is expected to see a mild pick-up after the country’s supportive policies boost consumption demand, an official said Friday. Liu Aihua, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), told a press conference that there has been improvement in the country’s consumer inflation as consumer demand, with service demand in particular, continued to recover last month. Food prices are expected to remain low because of seasonal factors, but boosted by equipment renewals and trade-ins of consumer goods, consumer demand will continue to improve, while the general prices will stabilize and see mild growth, Liu said. The country’s consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, edged up 0.3 percent year on year in April. On a monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.1 percent in April, reversing the 1-percent fall from the previous month, according to the NBS. Producer price index, which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, went down 2.5 percent year on year in April, with the pace of decrease easing from a 2.8-percent decline in March.

Liu said there will still be uncertainties in the global commodity prices, but with the country’s large-scale equipment renewals and trade-ins of consumer goods gradually taking effect, demand in relevant industries will get lifted, leading to a rebound in the producer price index growth.