Consumer Price Index growth in most of the Chinese provinces slowed in January, underscoring the imminent deflationary risks for the economy.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, 18 out of the 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland saw a year-on-year CPI growth of under 1 percent in January.

What was particularly worrying was the zero CPI growth recorded in three regions - Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Zhejiang. In Shaanxi the CPI fell by 0.1 percent from a year ago.