Consumer prices in China rose slightly in June, official data showed on Wednesday, snapping a four-month decline even as factory gate prices were bruised by a fierce trade war with Washington.Chinese officials have been trying to revive sluggish domestic spending since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the government’s official growth target at risk.That comes just as leaders face heightened turmoil sparked by US President Donald Trump’s trade war.The consumer price index — a key measure of inflation — edged up 0.1 percent on-year last month, according to data published by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).The reading beat the 0.1 percent drop forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists and was an improvement on the 0.1 percent fall seen in May.The flip into positive territory was “mainly due to the rebound in prices of industrial consumer goods”, NBS statistician Dong Lijuan said in a statement.Dong noted that “policies of expanding domestic demand and promoting consumption continued to be effective”.Beijing has set its official growth target this year at around five percent, although many economists consider that goal to be ambitious because domestic spending remains sluggish.The government has introduced a series of aggressive moves since last year in an attempt to get people spending, including key rate cuts, abolishing some restrictions on homebuying and a consumer goods trade-in scheme.In a signal of further deflationary pressure, Chinese factory gate prices fell in June at the fastest rate in nearly two years, the NBS also said on Wednesday.The producer price index declined 3.6 percent year-on-year, accelerating from a 3.3 percent drop in May, and faster than the 3.2 percent decline estimated in the Bloomberg survey.”I think it is too early to call the end of deflation at this stage,” Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, wrote in a note.China’s once-booming real estate market has been mired in a crisis for years, stalling many large construction projects and spooking would-be homebuyers.”The momentum in the property sector is still weakening,” Zhang said.The slump in the property market — long a key driver of growth — gives China’s exports a more prominent role in boosting economic activity.However, the outlook for Chinese exports has also darkened with fierce headwinds on trade this year.Trump revealed new tariff rates for many countries this week, with many at levels similar to those announced — and later paused — in April.Zhang said “the market is too complacent about the damage of such high tariffs on both the US and the global economy”.

Gao Chaorong knows what it takes to turn out good crops of sweet potatoes, peanuts and wheat, but tasty produce is no longer enough to draw China’s app savvy crowd.To prevent her crops from rotting unsold in the fields, the 56-year-old is now back in school, attending a “hands-on livestreaming bootcamp” to learn to take her vegetables straight to consumers via their mobile phones.Gao and her classmates are gunning for online popularity as China’s “new farmers” — people who use the latest technology in agricultural production or services.The number of new rural creators has soared 52 percent on China’s TikTok sister app Douyin over the past year as they hope to capitalise on the country’s one billion internet users, the world’s most.On the Instagram-like Chinese app Xiaohongshu, the hashtag “new farmers” has been viewed more than 227 million times.Local authorities are even sending some officials to learn livestreaming and help farmers get online.”It’s been harder for farmers to sell their produce, especially offline,” said Chen Xichuan, a Communist Party cadre in the small Shandong city of Pingdu who was among those asked to set an example and help growers take their trade online.Live in action outdoors, Chen squeezed a ripe green pear he held up to a phone secured on a tripod.”Just look at the juice,” Chen, wearing a straw hat to shield himself from the blazing sun, told his viewers.”Take it home, taste it, and make fresh pear juice for your children,” said Chen.- ‘Full marks’ -With Chinese consumers buying anything from clothes to makeup to garlic online, livestreaming has become an essential marketing platform for farmers to entice and engage customers directly.Users can make purchases at the click of a button, as well as comment during live broadcasts or ask sellers about their products.The Tian sisters, livestreamers and e-commerce experts born to farmers, organise the training camp monthly, charging around 5,000 yuan ($698) for four days of intensive lessons and “lifelong” follow-ups.Students learn how to hook audiences using compelling scripts, props and visually appealing backgrounds.In the classroom, a dozen students watched as Gao held up a sliced eggplant and gushed, with barely a pause or a stutter, about the best way to cook the vegetable.”Remember, when you’re selling products, it’s not just about memorising your sales script,” teacher Tian Dongying said, scribbling on a whiteboard as she reviewed Gao’s mock livestreaming session. “You need to understand who you’re talking to,” she said.Tian, who founded the livestreaming school with two sisters and a cousin, said all her students deserved “full marks”.”They’ve never done this kind of thing before and just being able to stand up and speak is already a challenge,” she told AFP.”Because they want to earn this money, they have to push past their own limits.”Gao told AFP she attended the bootcamp because farmers like her face fierce competition and “can’t stick to the old-fashioned way of farming anymore”.She grows her crops at the foot of Shandong’s Maling Mountain and has started to post videos on Douyin, gaining more than 7,000 followers.- Refunds guaranteed -China’s agricultural sector is becoming more important because industries like real estate are “no longer as prosperous” and unemployment is rising, said livestreaming school principal Tian Chunying, Dongying’s eldest sister.”Agriculture is becoming the cornerstone of China’s ability to support its population,” she said.President Xi Jinping has identified rural revitalisation as a key priority for China’s development since taking office in 2012.He has also emphasised the vital role that agriculture plays in China, the world’s top producer of commodities including rice and wheat.”A country must first strengthen agriculture to make itself strong,” Xi said in 2022.Digital tools such as livestreaming have transformed public perceptions of rural life in China, said Pan Wang, an associate professor at Australia’s University of New South Wales.”Traditionally, Chinese farmers have been depicted as working from sunrise to sunset — poor, old-fashioned, disconnected from technology,” Wang told AFP.However, hurdles remain for farmers as they try to become more tech-savvy.”Livestreaming and making videos are all new,” farmer Gao said.”For young people, clicking around on a computer…feels effortless, but we have to put in twice the effort to learn these things.”