Investing.com - Consumer inflation in China hit a six-month high in April, mainly driven by rising pork prices, official data showed on Thursday.
The official consumer price index rose 2.5% year-on-year April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, its highest reading since October. The number was in line with expectation and slightly higher than March’s 2.3%.
Pork prices, which are heavily weighted in the gauge’s basket of goods, rose 14.4% year-on-year and 1.6% month-on-month. China's hog herd has been hit by African swine fever in recent months.
“We estimate that pork prices could be on an uptrend till at least Q4 or even year-end, and may rise as much as 30% year on year. As a result, both food inflation and headline CPI inflation may continue to head higher in the near term,” Jingyang Chen, economist with HSBC, said in a Financial Times report.
Overall, food consumer price inflation rose 6.1% from a year ago in April compared to a 4.1% rise a month earlier, data from the bureau showed.
April non-food inflation was 1.7%.
Meanwhile, Producer price inflation - a gauge of industrial profitability - rose 0.9% from a year ago in April, the fastest pace since December 2018.