BEIJING, Dec 10 (Reuters) – China’s annual consumer inflation accelerated to a 21-month peak in November, mainly driven by food prices, while factory-gate deflation deepened, with underlying trends suggesting domestic demand ‍remains weak and unlikely to recover in the near term.

The consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.7% from a year earlier, National Bureau of Statistics data showed, matching a 0.7% expansion in a Reuters poll of economists. It had increased 0.2% in October.

The pickup in consumer inflation was mainly driven by rising food ‌prices, which increased 0.2% year-on-year after dropping 2.9% ‌in October.

But annual core inflation, which excludes volatile prices of food and fuel, was unchanged at 1.2% last month. On a monthly basis, CPI dipped 0.1% versus a 0.2% rise in October

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