[] [BTBBT Daily - 12/9]November CPI falls to 4.2%, lowest this year

--> CHINA'S consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, dropped to 4.2 percent year-on-year in November, the lowest annual rate since last September and the fourth consecutive decline.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices notched down 0.2 percent in November, the National Bureau of Statistics said today.

Food prices, which account for nearly one-third of the basket of goods in the country's CPI calculation, grew 8.8 percent annually in November – but dropped 0.8 percent month-on-month, the NBS said.

The CPI reached a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July, dropped to 6.2 percent in August, and continued its downtrend to 6.1 and 5.5 percent in September and October, respectively.

China's Producer Price Index, a major measure of inflation at wholesale level, rose an annual 2.7 percent in November, down from 5 percent in October, according to the NBS.

China's central bank reduced lenders' reserve requirement ratio from Monday, the first time in almost three years, releasing about 400 billion yuan (US$62.9 billion) in capital to stimulate economic growth.