The National Bureau of Statistics announced earlier today that China's consumer price index (CPI) rose 5.3 percent year-on-year in April, a fraction slower than the pace of growth registered in March.

According to NBS, the CPI, a main gauge of inflation, rose 5.2 percent in urban areas and 5.8 percent in rural areas. Food prices rose 11.5 percent when compared to the same period last year, but dropped by 0.4 percent on a month-on-month basis, with fresh vegetables prices down by 11.2 percent month-on-month.

The prices of consumer goods went up by 5.9 percent and the prices of services grew up by 3.9 percent.

According to the NBS, the cost of housing and health care also increased. Housing prices were up 6.1 percent while the price of health care and personal articles increased by 3.2 percent.

The producer price index (PPI), another measure of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 6.8 percent in April.

The NBS also released data on fixed-asset investment and industrial production that were calculated according to a new standard as announced by the bureau earlier this year.

According to the NBS, "in the first four months of 2011, the investment in fixed assets (excluding rural households) reached 6.27 trillion yuan, up by 25.4 percent year-on-year, it was 0.4 percentage point higher than that in the first three months of this year. Of this total, that in the state-owned and state holding enterprises reached 2.20 trillion yuan, a rise of 16.6 percent. The month-on-month growth was 3.08 percent in April."

The NBS also noted that "in April, the total value added of the industrial enterprises above designated size (which now applies to companies with core revenue of over 20 million yuan) was up 13.4 percent year-on-year, or 1.4 percentage points lower than that in March 2011. In the first four months of this year, it was up by 14.2 percent year-on-year, which was 0.2 percentage point lower than that in the first three months of the year."

Investment in real estate development increased rapidly, with investment in real estate development over the first 4 months totalling 1.33 trillion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 34.3 percent. Of this total, the investment in residential buildings reached 949.7 billion yuan, up by 38.6 percent.

The People's Bank of China also released financial data today revealing that 739.6 billion yuan worth of yuan-denominated loans were issued in April 2011, down 20.8 billion on the amount issued in April 2010.

The central bank also revealed details about money supply in the monthly report. By the end of April, broad money supply (M2) had reached 75.73 trillion yuan, up 15.3 percent on a year-on-year basis. This rate of annualised growth was 1.3 percentage points lower than the figure of 16.6 percent registered at the end of March and 6.2 percentage points lower than the rate of annualised growth measured in April last year.

M1, a narrower measure of money supply, climbed to 26.68 trillion yuan by the end of the first quarter, up 12.9 percent year-on-year. This rate of annualised growth was 2.1 percentage points lower than the figure of 15 percent registered at the end of March and 18.4 percentage points lower than the rate of annualised growth measured in April last year.

The Ministry of Finance also published details of the fiscal revenue and spending on its website earlier today

In April, the national government collected 1.01 trillion yuan in fiscal revenue, 215.64 billion yuan more than collected in April 2010 an increase of 27.2 percent.

Of this figure, central government revenue accounted for 521.41 billion yuan, up 24.8 percent on last year and local government revenue of 486.8 billion yuan, an increase of almost 30% year-on-year.

Over the first 4 months of this year, total government revenue of 3.62 trillion yuan has been collected, which is 31.4 percent or 865.5 billion more than had been collected over the same period last year.

Central government revenue accounted for 1.83 trillion yuan of this figure and local government revenue accounted for the other 1.79 trillion yuan, up 29.5 and 33.4 percent respectively.

Of the total figure, almost 3.3 trillion was collected as tax revenue, up 30.5 percent on last year, while the remaining 358 billion came from non-tax revenue, up 40.3 percent on last year.

The growth in fiscal revenue is expected to continue to decline and analysts say that growth in revenue peaked at the start of the year with customs excise on soaring imports helping to drive fiscal revenue up by 36% year-on-year over the first 2 months of the year.

The Ministry of Finance report also revealed details of government spending, noting that total government expenditure in April came to 730.4 billion yuan, up 31% or 172.9 billion yuan on the amount spent in April 2010.

Of this spending, 168.7 billion was spent by the central government and 561.7 billion by various local governments.

Over the January to April period, total government spending was over 2.54 trillion yuan, 545.3 billion yuan more than the corresponding period last year, a jump of 27.4 percent.

The central government accounted for 481.7 billion of this spending, while local government spent 2.05 trillion.

Links and Sources
National Bureau of Statistics: 4月份國民經(jīng)濟(jì)主要指標(biāo)數(shù)據(jù)
National Bureau of Statistics: China's Major Economic Indicators in April
The People's Bank of China: 2011年4月金融統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)報(bào)告
Ministry of Finance: 2011年4月份公共財(cái)政收支情況
Economic Observer: 4月份CPI同比上漲5.3% 環(huán)比上漲0.1%
Economic Observer: China's CPI Up 2.8% in April (2010)
Sohu: Graph