Inflation in China grows 5.4% year-on-year in January: the price of pork soars 116%

China's consumer price index (CPI), the main indicator of inflation, rose 5.4% year-on-year in January, nine tenths more than in the previous month, and above analyst forecasts, which had forecast a rise of around 5%.

It is also the largest year-on-year growth registered by the CPI in a month since October 2011, according to the British consultancy Capital Economics, and it is due to the seasonal volatility caused by the Chinese New Year and the interruptions caused by the new coronavirus.

The Ministry of Health of China has raised this Monday to 908 those killed by the outbreak of the new coronavirus and 40,171 those affected in the country. Specifically, this Sunday there have been 97 new deaths, 91 of them in the province of Hubei, where the town of Wuhan is located, epicenter of the outbreak, two in Anhui and one in Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, Hainan and Gansu, according to the authorities Chinese toilets.

The price of the pig soars 116%

The data published today by the National Statistics Office (ONE) of the Asian country show that, as in previous months, the main protagonists of the interannual increase in the CPI were food, which rose 20.6% (compared to 17, December 4th).

The price of the pig, one of the most demanded products by Chinese consumers, continues unstoppable and increased 116% year-on-year last month (in December it was 97% year-on-year), since its production has been reduced by an epidemic of African swine fever that has decimated the pig population in the Asian country.

Likewise, the price of vegetables increased by 17.1% while that of fresh fruits decreased by 5%, and that of eggs rose by 2.8%. The prices of non-food items increased 1.6%, 0.3 percentage points more than in December.

Within this section, the prices of the health sector increased by 2.3%, those of the educational and cultural and entertainment sector by 2.2% and those of transport and communications by 0.9%. The CPI in urban and rural areas registered an inter-annual growth of 5.1% and 6.3% in January, respectively.

On the other hand, the ONE reported that the production price index (PPI), which measures wholesale inflation, increased 0.1% year-on-year in January after falling 0.5% year-on-year in December last year.

This is the first year-on-year increase in this index in eight months, according to the ONE. Of the 40 industrial sectors analyzed, 17 experienced price increases, 5 remained at the same level and 18 fell.