The National Bureau of Statistics announced on Friday morning in Beijing that inflation in consumer prices slowed to 3.4 percent in April from 3.6 percent in March, while producer prices, measured at the factory gate, actually fell 0.7 percent in April from a year earlier. The fading of inflation pressures makes it easier for the government to stimulate the economy without pushing up prices. A clearer signal of China’s economic health may emerge later Friday when the National Bureau of Statistics announces April figures for industrial production, retail sales and fixed-asset investment.

China has noticeably not loosened monetary policy in recent months to mitigate the economic slowdown. The government had been moving toward easing through the winter, lowering cash reserve requirements for banks in November and most recently in February, so that the banks could lend more.

But the government has left the reserve ratio unchanged since then. It has also left regulated interest rates unchanged at the fairly high levels set last July, when the economy was much stronger. Changes in the reserve ratio or interest rates are ultimately decided not by the central bank in China but by the country’s political leadership.

The government’s inactivity has coincided with the biggest political drama in China in more than a decade: the ouster of Bo Xilai, a leading advocate of renewed government control over the economy and public life. The Communist Party removed him March 15 as the party secretary in Chongqing and on April 10 suspended his membership in the Politburo and the larger Central Committee.

On March 12, three days before Mr. Bo lost his job in Chongqing, the governor of the Chinese central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, strongly hinted that the government was prepared to lower the reserve requirement further, but it has done nothing since to follow up.

“We have a lot of room to adjust the reserve ratio,” Mr. Zhou said at the time. “On the other hand, it is necessary to see whether there is a necessity to adjust.”

Stock market investors appeared to be betting Thursday that Chinese leaders would be forced to ease policy in response to the latest trade figures. After early gains, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets dropped sharply in late morning when the export and import statistics were released. But both markets later rebounded, and they closed the day little changed.