“Consumer price inflation ticked up in December, while producer price deflation eased. There are some early signs that the transition toward living with Covid is starting to put upward pressure on prices,” said Zichun Huang, a China economist at Capital Economics.

“But the uptick in inflation is unlikely to be as large as that seen in many other economies as they reopened. And we doubt that inflation will impose any major constraints on the [central bank’s] ability to support the economy.”

NBS statistician Dong Lijuan said that authorities took measures last month to coordinate coronavirus prevention and economic development to ensure stable supplies and prices.

Huang added: “We expect inflation in China to rise over the coming quarters. But there are good reasons to think it won’t surge to the same extent as in many other economies as they reopened. These include the composition of China’s CPI basket, more modest excess savings, ample domestic goods supply, a flexible migrant labour force, and the timing of the reopening.”

Last year, inflation in the United States hit a 40-year high of over 9.1 per cent in June before dropping to 7.1 per cent in November.

In Britain, inflation edged up throughout 2022, hitting a 41-year high of 11.1 per cent in November.

“The overall price level of China will continue to run smoothly. The monthly increase of the consumer price index has always been running below 3 per cent, and the annual increase is 2 per cent, which is significantly lower than the growth rate of developed economies,” said Wan Jinsong, director of the National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) Department of Price, on Thursday.

Last year, China’s state planner focused on “stabilising people’s livelihood commodities, stabilising bulk commodities and stabilising market expectations”, Wan said.

This included a focus on grain, pigs and vegetables, while also appropriately increasing the minimum purchase price of rice and wheat to promote stable and increased grain production.

The NDRC also used coal as an “anchor” to stabilise the prices of energy and other bulk commodities, with the consistency of coal prices laying a solid foundation for stabilising electricity prices and energy costs, Wan added.

“Looking forward to 2023, although international commodity prices may fluctuate at high levels, and imported inflationary pressures still exist, there is a solid foundation for my country’s prices to remain stable,” Wan said.

“With continuous bumper harvests in grain production, reasonable and sufficient hog production capacity, sufficient supply of important livelihood commodities, strong basic energy security, and further improvement of the system for ensuring supply and stabilising prices, we are fully confident and capable of maintaining overall price stability.”

Within the CPI, food prices in China rose by 4.8 per cent from a year earlier last month, compared with 3.7 per cent growth in November, while non-food prices rose by 1.1 per cent last month, year on year, unchanged from November.

Prices for pork, a staple on Chinese dinner tables, rose by 22.2 per cent in December compared with a year earlier, while fruit prices rose by 11 per cent and vegetable prices fell by 8 per cent, year on year.

China’s core consumer inflation rate, excluding the volatile prices of food and energy, rose by 0.7 per cent in December compared with a year earlier, up from 0.6 per cent in November.

“CPI inflation is stable at a low level. The marginal rebound from last month is due to the base effect. The economy is still running below its potential,” said Zhang Zhiwei, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.

“High-frequency indicators such as traffic flows picked up recently, but demand is still not strong enough to lead to inflationary pressure. Inflation is not a constraint for monetary policy to loosen further this year.”