Posted on 12 May 2022
For April, China's Consumer Price Index (CPI) grew 2.1% on year or 0.4% on month, while its Producer Price Index (PPI) rose more substantially by 8% on year and up 0.6% on month, mainly due to the latest wave of COVID-19 outbreaks in China and the persisting high bulk commodity prices globally, according to the latest data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on May 11.
Last month, among the key CPI elements, food prices grew by 0.9% on month or 1.9% on year, compared with the on-month and on-year declines posted in March, with pork prices up 1.5% on month though still 33.3% lower on year.
The uptick in pork prices was because China had gradually adjusted the country's pig production and stocked certain volumes of frozen pork for the state reserves to balance domestic supply and demand.
Meanwhile, China's battle against the pandemic outbreaks nationwide via its "dynamic zero-COVID" approach which had lifted overall logistics costs and spurred pent-up demand also saw the prices of certain foods including eggs and fresh fruits grow markedly on month.
As for PPI in April, the rise has been lower than that of March, despite an 8% on-year rise.
Specifically, China's steelmaking and fabrication sector saw its ex-works prices rise 1.8% on month or 5.6% on year, mainly propped by high bulk commodity prices globally, especially those of iron ore and coke. Accordingly, prices in Chinese coal mining and processing sector also went up 2.5% on month or 53.4% on year.
Elsewhere, April saw global prices of crude oil and non-ferrous products retreat from high levels, with Chinese prices of related products also seeing some downward corrections, even though overall prices still persisted high.
Hence, prices in the oil, coal, and other fuels processing sector grew 3.5% on month and 38.7% on year, and those in the oil and natural gas drilling sector also rose marginally by 1.2% on month and 48.5% on year. The non-ferrous metals manufacturing and processing industry saw ex-works prices climb by 0.8% on month and 16.8% on year.
Over January-April, China's CPI grew 1.4% on year, while the PPI gained 8.5% on year, according to the NBS statistics.
Source:Mysteel Global
