China inflation: consumer price growth accelerates due to rising food costs, but factory-gate prices ‘level off’
- China’s official consumer price index (CPI) rose by 2.3 per cent in November from a year earlier, up from 1.5 per cent in October
- China’s producer price index (PPI) rose by 12.9 per cent in November from 13.5 per cent in October
Rising food costs pushed China’s consumer inflation up last month to the highest level in almost a year and a half, but with “price pressures generally easing”, once sky-high factory-gate inflation eased in November.
Food prices rose by 1.6 per cent from a year earlier, up from a fall of 2.4 per cent in October, driven by a 30.6 per cent rise in the price of fresh vegetables from a year earlier, up from a rise of 15.9 per cent in October.
But the price of pork – a staple meat on Chinese plates – fell by 32.7 per cent compared with a year earlier in November.
This was almost entirely due to food prices. Core inflation remains subdued and producer prices have levelled off
The increase was due to the “combined influence of seasonal rising demands, increasing costs and sporadic coronavirus outbreaks”, according to senior NBS statistician Dong Lijuan.
“Consumer price inflation rose above 2 per cent for the first time in over a year last month. But this was almost entirely due to food prices. Core inflation remains subdued and producer prices have levelled off,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics.