Topic 1: China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, grew 2.5 percent year-on-year in December, the highest since May, said the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

On a month-on-month basis, December's CPI rose 0.8 percent from the previous month, and the year-on-year CPI for the whole year was 2.6 percent, according to the bureau.

Teng Xiaodong: China's M2 has grown 13.8 percent year-on-year to hit 97.42 trillion yuan ($15.67 trillion). It is hardly surprising that the CPI grows fast.