CCTV News: On March 17, the State Information Office held a press conference to introduce the operation of the national economy from January to February 2025.

At the meeting, Fu Linghui, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics and Director of the National Economic Comprehensive Statistics Department, introduced that from historical data, the Spring Festival factors have a greater impact on the CPI from January to February, especially when the Spring Festival was off-month last year and that year, which generally causes the CPI in January and February to fluctuate year-on-year and month-on-month. This is mainly due to the concentrated release of demand for goods and services before and during the Spring Festival, which has led to an increase in prices during this period. After the Spring Festival, as demand falls, prices often decline.

Judging from the situation this year, due to the Spring Festival factors, CPI rose by 0.5% year-on-year, a significant increase from the previous month. In February, due to the disagreement of the Spring Festival, the year-on-year decline was 0.7%. This year's Spring Festival was in January and last year's Spring Festival was in February. If the impact of the Spring Festival is deducted from the impact of the mismatched month of the Spring Festival, the CPI rose by 0.1% year-on-year in February. At the same time, it should be noted that the price of fresh vegetables fell year-on-year and the price reduction of automobile products in February this year lowered the CPI increase in February. Due to the rain, snow and freezing weather in some areas in the same period last year, the price of fresh vegetables increased significantly. Affected by the high base last year, the price of fresh vegetables fell by 12.6% year-on-year in February this year, affecting the CPI decline by about 0.31 percentage points year-on-year. In February, the prices of fuel-fired cars and new energy cars fell by 5.0% and 6.0% respectively, affecting the CPI by about 0.16 percentage points year-on-year. Overall, the moderate upward trend of CPI has not changed.

From the perspective of CPI structure, driven by improved market demand, the prices of some goods and services rose steadily in February. In February, the prices of industrial consumer goods after deducting energy rose by 0.2% year-on-year. Among them, the prices of durable consumer goods, clothing, communication tools and small household appliances in entertainment increased by 1.0%-1.6%. Prices in some service industries have risen steadily, with housekeeping services rising by 2.6% year-on-year and catering prices rising by 1.2%. These all show the impact of improved market demand on prices.

Judging from the situation in the next stage, my country's industrial and agricultural consumer goods supply is sufficient, the service supply is generally stable, and the basis for maintaining price stability has not changed. At the same time, the economic recovery and positive trend continues, and market demand is expected to continue to expand. With the promotion of residents' income growth through multiple channels, increasing high-quality supply, improving the consumption environment, and continuing to increase efforts to promote the implementation of policies such as old-for-new consumer goods, it will be conducive to the gradual improvement of the price situation.