The slowdown comes as authorities have tried to boost domestic activity as a housing crisis weighs on confidence.

The consumer price index (CPI), a key measure of inflation, rose 0.3% year-on-year in October, down from 0.4% in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

The latest figure was below the 0.4 percent forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

The data was released after Chinese lawmakers on Friday unveiled a sweeping plan to lift local government debt and boost spending.

While many major Western economies faced the threat of high inflation, China instead struggled with low or negative prices.

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At the end of 2023, the country sank into deflation for four months, with the sharpest contraction in consumer prices in 14 years in January.

Factory-gate prices also fell 2.9 percent year-on-year in October, compared with a 2.8 percent drop in September, the SNB said on Saturday.

This extends a deflationary period that began in late 2022.

Beijing began unveiling a series of measures in September aimed at boosting economic activity, including rate cuts and easing restrictions on home purchases.

However, analysts have lamented the lack of details so far.

China’s Premier Li Qiang said this week he was “fully confident” the country would hit its growth target of around five percent for 2024, but the third quarter saw the country post its slowest expansion in a year and a half.

Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House threatens more pain for Beijing, with the US president-elect vowing to impose punishing tariffs on Chinese goods.

Saturday’s data showed that “deflationary pressure is clearly persistent in China,” Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said in a note.

“Stimulus targeting the consumption side would be more effective to boost domestic demand and avoid exacerbating the overcapacity problem,” Zhang said.