The slowdown comes as authorities have been seeking to boost domestic activity as a property crisis weighs on confidence.
The consumer price index (CPI), a key measure of inflation, rose 0.3 percent year-on-year in October, down from 0.4 percent in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
The latest figure came in below the 0.4 percent forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
The data was released after Chinese lawmakers on Friday unveiled a sweeping plan to lift local government debt and boost spending.
While many major Western economies have been grappling with the threat of high inflation, China has instead been battling low or negative prices.
At the end of 2023, the country sank into deflation for four months, with the sharpest contraction in consumer prices in 14 years in January.
Factory-gate prices also slid 2.9 percent year-on-year in October, compared to a decrease of 2.8 percent in September, the NBS said on Saturday.
This extends a deflationary run that began in late 2022.
Beijing began to unveil a raft of measures in September aimed at boosting economic activity, including rate cuts and the easing of some home purchasing restrictions.
However analysts have bemoaned the lack of detail so far.
China's Premier Li Qiang this week said he was "fully confident" the country would hit its growth target of around five percent for 2024, but in the third quarter the country saw its slowest expansion in a year and a half.
The impending return of Donald Trump to the White House also threatens further grief for Beijing, with the US president-elect promising punishing tarriffs on Chinese goods.
Saturday's data shows "deflationary pressure is clearly persistent in China," Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said in a note.
"Stimulus targeting the consumption side would be more effective to boost domestic demand, and avoid exacerbating the overcapacity problem," Zhang said.
Cartier owner's profit sinks as China sales slump
Zurich (AFP) Nov 8, 2024 -
Cartier owner Richemont posted Friday a hefty drop in net profit for the first half of the year as watch sales sank in China, where weak consumer spending has hit the luxury sector.
Richemont said its profit after tax reached 457 million euros ($492 million), down from 1.5 billion euros in the same six-month period last year as it booked a 1.2-billion-euro write-down from the sale of its Yoox-Net-A-Porter online fashion business.
Its net profit for continuing operations was 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in the six-month period ending in September, 20 percent lower than in 2023 and less than expected by analysts polled by Swiss news agency AWP.
Global sales fell one percent to 10.1 billion euros.
Sales from the Asia-Pacific region were down by almost a fifth while all other regions in the world posted "solid growth", Richemont said in a results statement.
Citing "reduced consumer spending" in China, Richemont said growth in other Asian countries was "more than offset" by a double-digit drop in sales in the world's second biggest economy.
"The global watch market is experiencing a slowdown, particularly in China, which is affecting all watchmaking brands globally, with the high-end segments showing greater resilience," Richemont chairman Johann Rupert said in the statement.
He said Chinese demand "will take longer to recover".
Last month, French group LVMH, the world's biggest luxury company whose brands include Louis Vuitton, Dior and Bulgari, reported a 4.4 percent drop in third-quarter sales.
Gucci owner Kering said its sales sank 15 percent in the same quarter due to slowing consumer spending in China.
Richemont's stock price fell more than four percent in the Swiss stock exchange.
"There is a slowdown in China that we are experiencing like our competitors," Richemont chief executive Nicolas Bos said in a conference call.
"We have no clue on how long it will last and whether we've reached the bottom or not," he said.
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