From Reuters:
China’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 3% in September from a year earlier, according to National Bureau of Statistics data, marking the fastest increase since October 2013.
Food prices have soared, driven mainly by a sharp increase in pork values after deadly African swine fever spread throughout China’s huge hog herd, reducing it by 41%, the government said on Monday.
Retail pork prices were up 84% from a year earlier to 43.4 yuan per kg ($2.78 a pound) in the week ending Oct. 2, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
The surge in pork prices slowed in the weeks ahead of the October national holiday, with Beijing releasing 30,000 tonnes of frozen pork from reserves.
But price rises are set to speed up again, with live hog prices shooting up after China’s week-long National Day break, said Jim Huang, chief executive of consultancy China-America Commodity Data Analytics........MORE
