【明報專訊】SOME figures of the mainland economy that came out last week are worrying. Last August the producer price index (PPI) dropped 1.2%, and the decrease in it grew 0.3 percentage point. The consumer price index (CPI) announced at the same time grew 2%, down 0.3 percentage point on the previous month. It must be noticed that, as of last August, the year-on-year decrease in the PPI had persisted thirty months. Such a protracted decrease happened only in 2008-2009 (the financial tsunami) and 1997-1998 (the Asian financial turmoil). That points to a growing tendency towards a downturn in the mainland economy. Hong Kong must be prepared for this eventuality or it will be too late when the crisis is imminent.