Economic Bureau of National Statistics: January PPI rose 0.4% month-on-month, with an expanded increase and a four-month consecutive rise

Dong Lijuan, the chief statistician of the Urban Division of the National Bureau of Statistics, interpreted the CPI and PPI data for January 2026, stating that the PPI rose by 0.4% month-on-month in January 2026, marking a continuous increase for four months, with the growth rate expanding by 0.2 percentage points compared to December of last year. The main characteristics of the PPI operation in January include: first, the continuous advancement of the construction of a unified national market has driven price increases in certain industries.

The continuous advancement of the construction of a unified national market has driven price increases in certain industries. In January 2026, the prices of cement manufacturing and lithium-ion battery manufacturing rose by 0.1% month-on-month, both increasing for four consecutive months; the prices of photovoltaic equipment and components manufacturing rose from a decrease of 0.2% in the previous month to an increase of 1.9%, and the prices of basic chemical raw materials manufacturing rose from a decrease of 0.1% to an increase of 0.7%. The prices in the black metal smelting and rolling processing industry rose from a decrease of 0.1% to an increase of 0.2%.

Dong Lijuan also pointed out that the increase in demand last month drove price increases in related industries. The rapid development of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the growing demand for computing power drove the prices in the computer communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing industries to rise by 0.5% month-on-month, with prices of electronic semiconductor materials and external storage devices and components increasing by 5.9% and 4%, respectively.

In addition, the month’s input factors affected the price trends of domestic non-ferrous metals and oil-related industries. During this period, the rise in international non-ferrous metal prices drove the prices of domestic non-ferrous metal mining, smelting, and rolling processing industries to increase by 5.7% and 5.2% month-on-month, respectively, with silver smelting, copper smelting, gold smelting, and aluminum smelting prices increasing by 38.2%, 8.4%, 4.8%, and 2.3%, respectively. The fluctuations in international crude oil prices affected the domestic oil extraction and refined oil product manufacturing prices, which decreased by 3.1% and 2.5%, respectively