China December inflation rises to 1.5%

China's consumer inflation rebounded marginally to 1.5 percent year-on-year in December, the government said Friday, as slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy keeps a lid on prices.
The rise in the consumer price index released by the National Bureau of Statistics matched market estimates and marked an increase from a five-year low of 1.4 percent in November.
For the full year 2014, consumer inflation was 2.0 percent, down from 2.6 percent in 2013 and well below the government's target of about 3.5 percent.
The producer price index (PPI) -- a measure of costs for goods at the factory gate and a leading indicator of the trend for CPI -- fell 3.3 percent year-on-year, the NBS said separately, a larger fall than the 3.1 percent median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.
It was the biggest drop since September 2012's fall of 3.6 percent.
The last PPI increase was in January 2012, when it rose 0.7 percent.
Moderate inflation can be a boon to consumption as it encourages consumers to buy before prices go up, while falling prices encourage shoppers to delay purchases and companies to put off investment, both of which can hurt growth.