China's consumer price index rose 0.6% in October from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in Beijing on Monday. Inflation stayed positive despite a contraction in factory activity the same month.

The figure was helped by a low base from October 2025, when prices rose just 0.2%. Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy costs, firmed again as services prices edged higher.

The bureau said producer prices were little changed from a year earlier. Higher global commodity and energy costs offset weak demand from domestic manufacturers and the property sector. Factory-gate prices had fallen year on year for most of the period since late 2022. That decline had squeezed industrial profits and fed fears of entrenched deflation.

The data followed a weak official purchasing managers' index for October, which slipped to 49.3. Any reading below 50 signals contraction.

The bureau attributed part of the rise in consumer prices to services, travel and gold jewellery. Pork prices remained a drag on food inflation.

Analysts at banks including Goldman Sachs and Nomura have argued that Beijing's campaign against disorderly price competition, known domestically as anti-involution, has helped stabilise prices in sectors such as solar panels, steel and electric vehicles. However, they have cautioned that household demand remains soft. The People's Bank of China has kept policy rates largely on hold, signalling a preference for targeted support over broad easing.

The figures are likely to shape debate over the scale of stimulus as Beijing prepares for the Central Economic Work Conference in December. That meeting will set priorities for 2027, the second year of the 15th Five-Year Plan. Economists will also watch October retail sales and industrial output figures, due later this month, for confirmation of whether the slowdown in manufacturing is spreading to consumption.