China's inflation dipped to a two-year low in May while economic activity remained weak, reinforcing expectation that further policy easing could be in the pipeline, Reuters reported.

China's consumer inflation cooled faster than forecast to two-year lows of 3 percent in May, and is widely expected to head even lower in coming months.

In a sign that price pressures could slow further, China's producer prices also fell more than forecast by 1.4 percent from a year ago, marking the third straight month of producer price deflation.

Food inflation moderated to 6.4 percent in May from April's 7 percent, as falling fruit and pork prices offset a jump in vegetable prices.

But the spate of data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday was not as grim as the market had feared.

Industrial output rose 9.6 percent in May from a year earlier, picking up slightly from the 9.3 percent pace in April but was still near the weakest level in three years.

Fixed-asset investment rose 20.1 percent in the January-May period from a year earlier, easing a little from 20.2 percent in the first four months and hovering near a decade-low, while retail sales growth slowed to 13.8 percent in May from April's 14.1 percent.

(China.org.cn June 11, 2012)

据路透社报道，中国五月份的通货膨胀率降至两年最低点，经济活动仍较弱，这增强了政策进一步放宽的预期。

五月份，中国的消费通货膨胀率比预期降得更快，降至3%，为两年来的最低值，并有望在未来几个月中进一步下降。

另一个表明价格压力会进一步缓解的征兆是中国的生产者物价的跌幅度高于预期，比一年前降低了1.4%，这是连续第三个月出现生产者物价紧缩。

食品通货膨胀率从四月份的7%降至五月份的6.4%，这是由于水果、猪肉价格下跌抵消了蔬菜价格大幅上扬。

然而，国家统计局周六发布的一系列数据并没有市场担心的那么坏。

五月，工业输出比前一年上升了9.6%，虽然这比四月份的9.3%略有上升，但还是接近三年来的最低水平。

一月到五月，固定资产投资比去年上涨20.1%，但比前四个月的20.2%略有下滑，接近10年来的最低值。同时，零售额涨幅从四月份的14.1%下滑至五月份的13.8%。