中国消费价格指数2月份下降1.6%，使中国所面临的经济问题中增添了通货紧缩威胁。中国国家统计局星期二发表的报告说，食品价格下降促使消费品出现 2002年12月以来的首次全面下降。作为通货膨胀主要衡量指标的消费价格指数成为负数。在通货膨胀率变成负数时，经济学家称其为通货紧缩。
通货紧缩会使下滑的经济状况更加恶化，因为商品价格下降使消费者倾向于推迟购买，直到物价进一步下跌。推迟购买使整体经济活动放缓，可能引发不断紧缩。此外，贸易领域也有负面消息，中国的出口额1月份比去年同期下降17.5%。
China’s consumer prices fell 1.6 percent in February, adding the threat of deflation to the nation’s other economic troubles. Tuesday’s report from China’s statistics bureau says falling food prices helped push overall prices down for the first time since December of 2002. China’s key measure of inflation, the consumer price index, fell below zero. When the inflation rate falls below zero percent economists call the situation “deflation”.
Deflation can make a slowing economy worse, because falling prices give consumers an incentive to delay purchases until prices fall further. That delay slows overall economic activity and can cause a deflationary spiral. There was also bad news on the trade front, with China’s exports falling 17.5 percent in January from a year earlier.