China’s consumer inflation unexpectedly slowed to a 33-month low thanks to food prices, the government announced Friday, while producer-price deflation eased in a sign of rebounding industrial demand.

The consumer-price index rose 1.7 percent in October from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said, Bloomberg reported. That was below the median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg and compared with 1.9 percent in September. Producer prices declined 2.8 percent from a year earlier after a 3.6 percent drop in September.

While the increase in China’s gross domestic product slowed to 7.4 percent in the July-September quarter from a year earlier, the weakest in three years, gauges of manufacturing and retail sales have pointed to a recovery. Expansion will probably pick up to 7.7 percent this quarter and to 7.9 percent in January-March 2013, based on the median estimate of analysts surveyed Oct. 18-22.

China Inflation