China's inflation dipped to a two-year low in May while economic activity remained weak, reinforcing expectation that further policy easing could be in the pipeline, Reuters reported.

China's consumer inflation cooled faster than forecast to two-year lows of 3 percent in May, and is widely expected to head even lower in coming months.

In a sign that price pressures could slow further, China's producer prices also fell more than forecast by 1.4 percent from a year ago, marking the third straight month of producer price deflation.

Food inflation moderated to 6.4 percent in May from April's 7 percent, as falling fruit and pork prices offset a jump in vegetable prices.

But the spate of data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday was not as grim as the market had feared.

Industrial output rose 9.6 percent in May from a year earlier, picking up slightly from the 9.3 percent pace in April but was still near the weakest level in three years.

Fixed-asset investment rose 20.1 percent in the January-May period from a year earlier, easing a little from 20.2 percent in the first four months and hovering near a decade-low, while retail sales growth slowed to 13.8 percent in May from April's 14.1 percent.

(China.org.cn June 11, 2012)

據路透社報道，中國五月份的通貨膨脹率降至兩年最低點，經濟活動仍較弱，這增強了政策進一步放寬的預期。

五月份，中國的消費通貨膨脹率比預期降得更快，降至3%，為兩年來的最低值，并有望在未來幾個月中進一步下降。

另一個表明價格壓力會進一步緩解的征兆是中國的生產者物價的跌幅度高于預期，比一年前降低了1.4%，這是連續第三個月出現生產者物價緊縮。

食品通貨膨脹率從四月份的7%降至五月份的6.4%，這是由于水果、豬肉價格下跌抵消了蔬菜價格大幅上揚。

然而，國家統計局周六發布的一系列數據并沒有市場擔心的那么壞。

五月，工業輸出比前一年上升了9.6%，雖然這比四月份的9.3%略有上升，但還是接近三年來的最低水平。

一月到五月，固定資產投資比去年上漲20.1%，但比前四個月的20.2%略有下滑，接近10年來的最低值。同時，零售額漲幅從四月份的14.1%下滑至五月份的13.8%。