Fashion pulse: China - March 2026

Consumer prices (March)

Clothing prices in China rose 1.6 percent year-on-year in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS), running 0.6 percentage points above the +1.0 percent headline inflation rate. Within the fashion basket, garments rose +1.7 percent and footwear +1.2 percent. The month-on-month reading for clothing was +0.4 percent, part of a generally stable Q1 trajectory: year-to-date clothing inflation stands at +1.8 percent versus headline at a roughly similar range. Fashion is contributing positively to Chinese inflation — a rare pattern among major economies in early 2026. In most OECD markets tracked by FashionUnited, clothing prices run below headline; China is one of the few where the fashion category sits above.