BEIJING, Aug 9, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - China's consumer prices grew slower than expected last month, official data showed Sunday, as the world's second-largest economy confronts persistent deflationary pressure.

The consumer price index -- a key gauge of inflation -- eased to 0.5 percent year-on-year, lower than the 0.8 percent forecast by a Bloomberg survey and the slowest rise since January, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.