ZCZC
BCN-09
CHINA-ECONOMY-INFLATION
China prices rise as cost of food spikes
BEIJING, Oct 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A spike in the price of fruit and
vegetables pushed up China’s inflation rate in September, official figures
showed Tuesday.
For the fourth straight month, the consumer price index (CPI) — an
important barometer of retail inflation — rose, hitting its highest level
since February, at 2.5 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
Extreme typhoon weather lashed southern China last month, bringing strong
winds and heavy rain, and badly affecting agricultural production, it added.
The world’s biggest pork producer is also scrambling to contain an outbreak
of African swine fever that has spread through pig farms, with pork prices
rising significantly from August.
Adding to the strain on consumers, the cost of diesel and gas jumped more
than 20 percent on last year.
Oil is priced in US dollars, a currency that has risen against the yuan in
recent months, making fuel imports pricier.
The producer price index — which is used to measure the performance of the
industrial sector — decelerated to a 3.6 percent on-year rise in September.
That was down from 4.1 percent in August but above the 3.5 percent forecast
in a Bloomberg News survey.
While prices rose, the costs of raw materials went down, the NBS said.
“Policymakers are likely to look through the latest pick-up in consumer
price inflation and focus instead on evidence of cooling economic momentum,
including slower core inflation and weaker factory gate price pressures,”
said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics.
The rise in consumer inflation is “unlikely to prevent (the central bank)
from loosening monetary policy further in the coming months in a bid to shore
up economic growth,” he said in a note.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1254 hrs