BEIJING (Reuters) -- China's consumer prices accelerated in August to the fastest pace in half a year due to the higher costs of food from weather disruptions, while producer price deflation worsened, as Beijing maintained efforts to reinvigorate domestic demand.
A sputtering start in the second half is mounting pressure on the world's second-largest economy to roll out more policies amid a prolonged housing downturn, persistent joblessness, debt woes and rising trade tensions.
The consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.6% from a year earlier last month, versus a 0.5% rise in July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday, but less than a 0.7% increase forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.
Extreme weather this summer -- from deadly floods to scorching heat -- has pushed up farm produce prices, contributing to faster inflation.
"Higher CPI in August was due to high temperatures and rainy weather," NBS statistician Dong Lijuan said in a statement.
Food prices jumped 2.8% on the year in August from an unchanged outcome in July, while nonfood inflation was 0.2%, easing from 0.7% in July.
Core inflation, excluding volatile food and fuel prices, was 0.3% in August, down from 0.4% in July.
The consumer inflation gauge was up 0.4% month-on-month, compared with a 0.5% increase in July and missing economists' expectations of a 0.5% gain.
In unusually strong comments, China's ex-central bank Gov. Yi Gang urged efforts to fight deflationary pressure at the Bund Summit in Shanghai last week.
A national campaign to earmark $41 billion in ultralong treasury bonds to support equipment upgrades and trade-in of consumer goods has proven lukewarm in spurring consumer confidence, with domestic car sales extending declines for a fourth month in July.
Faltering economic activity has prompted global brokerages to scale back their China 2024 growth forecasts to below the official target of around 5%.
China has room to lower the amount of cash banks must set aside as reserves, a central bank official said on Thursday.
The producer price index in August slid 1.8% from a year earlier, the largest fall in four months. That was worse than a 0.8% decline in July and below a forecast 1.4% fall.
