China's consumer price index (CPI) decreased 1.8% year-on-year in July, with urban areas seeing a delcine of 1.9% and rural areas 1.6%, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. Food prices, which constitute 1/3 of the nation's CPI basket, contracted 1.9% from a year earlier. The producer price index, which gauges price changes received by producers for their output, shrank 8.2% during July, when industrial output gained 10.8% year-on-year, and retail sales were up 15.2% from a year earlier to ¥993.7 billion. From January through July, urban fixed-asset investment surged 32.9% to ¥9.54 trillion, including ¥1.78 trillion bound for the property sector.

$1 = ¥6.8

Source: http://www.china-cbn.com/s/n/000002/20090811/000000123121.shtml