China Producer and Consumer Prices Rise Amid Energy Squeeze

Factory gate prices rose in China at the fastest pace in 26 years during October, while consumer prices rose faster than expected, as the world’s second largest economy contended with soaring energy and commodities costs.

The producer price index (PPI) climbed 13.5% from a year earlier, faster than the 10.7% rise in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement. That was the quickest pace since July 1995.

The PPI jump was fuelled by higher raw material costs and factory production cuts, as government restrictions on carbon emissions and soaring prices of coal led to a power crisis.

“This largely reflects temporary disruption in a handful of industries from energy shortages,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics.

Meanwhile, the country’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.5% in October year-on-year, quickening from September’s 0.7% rise, according to NBS data.

The rise reflected increased production and transport costs, said Dong Lijuan, NBS senior statistician. “In October the CPI rose due to the combined effects of weather and the gap between supply and demand of some commodities,” said Dong.

Fresh Vegetables

“The price of fresh vegetables rose by 16.6%, affecting the CPI increase by about 0.34%, accounting for nearly half of the total increase,” he added.

Among non-food products, the price of industrial consumer goods rose by 0.9%, an increase of 0.6 percentage point from the previous month. “The increase was mainly due to the increase in the price of energy products,” said Dong.

The prices of petrol and diesel rose by 4.7% and 5.2%, respectively, which affected the CPI increase by about 0.15 percentage point.

The NBS expects government measures to stabilise the coal market will result in an easing of conditions from next month.

“We think PPI inflation is likely to drop back in the coming months while CPI inflation looks set to remain muted for the foreseeable future,” said Evans-Pritchard.