Wang Guanhua, a deputy director of the National Bureau of Statistics' Department of Comprehensive Economic Statistics, said at a news conference held by the State News Office on May 18 that China's consumer prices for urban residents maintained a moderate increase in April. The fluctuation of international crude oil prices has a limited and controllable impact on domestic consumer prices, and it shows some obvious structural characteristics, he said.

"Residential consumption prices show a mild recovery trend. From January to April, the year-on-year increase in the CPI was 0.9%. Due to factors such as fluctuations in international crude oil prices and the increase in domestic holiday travel demand, the year-on-year increase in the CPI in April expanded, and the monthly increase turned positive from negative," said Wang Guanhua.

On a month-on-month basis, the April CPI turned from a decrease of 0.7% in the previous month to an increase of 0.3%, mainly due to the rise in energy and travel service prices. "Domestic energy prices increased by 5.7% month-on-month, up by 0.9 percentage points compared to the previous month, affected by the rise in international crude oil prices. In order to mitigate the impact of the fluctuations in international crude oil prices, domestic temporary control measures continue to be taken for refined oil prices, and after the control, the increase in domestic gasoline prices was less than the increase in international oil prices. In addition, many places have implemented spring breaks for primary and secondary schools, combined with the Qingming and May Day holidays, which have stimulated the demand for travel and cultural tourism services mainly based on parent-child travel and family travel, and the prices of services such as air tickets, vehicle rental, travel agency charges, and hotel accommodation all increased compared to the previous month. The combined impact of these four items on the month-on-month increase of the CPI is about 0.17 percentage points," Wang Guanhua said.

Compared with the same period last year, the year-on-year increase of the April CPI was 1.2%, an increase of 0.2 percentage points from the previous month, and it has remained at 1% or more for three consecutive months; the core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, increased by 1.2%, an increase of 0.1 percentage points from the previous month. "Whether it is the CPI or the core CPI, the increase has rebounded, and the overall trend is relatively mild. From the major categories that constitute the CPI, there is a feature of some decline in food prices and a rebound in the increase of industrial consumer goods and service prices," said Wang Guanhua.

"The next phase, international energy price fluctuations are inevitable to have a certain impact on domestic prices, but China's supply of goods and services is sufficient, the basic energy security is strong, the industrial and supply chains are stable and reliable, the circulation system is relatively smooth, and the measures to ensure the supply and stabilize the prices of important livelihood commodities and energy resources continue to take effect, the foundation for keeping prices stable has not changed," Wang Guanhua said.

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