SteelOrbis Shanghai
On March 11, China's National Bureau of Statistics released the latest consumer price index (CPI) data.
In February, China's overall CPI jumped by 8.7 percent year on year. The CPI in urban areas rose 8.5 percent, climbing up by 9.2 percent in rural areas. In the different categories, the price indices for food, non-food, consumer goods, and services rose 23.3 percent, 1.6 percent, 10.9 percent and 2.0 percent, respectively. On a month-on-month basis, the February CPI increased 2.6 percent compared with January.
The latest figures show that China's CPI has accelerated its increase rate, continuing its general upward trend in the January-February period. On a month-on-month basis, apart from the 7.1 percent rise in food prices, the price increases in the other varieties are all below 0.5 percent. Not including the food and energy price increases, overall prices registered a rise of 1.0 percent compared with the same period last year, generally the same as the growth seen in the second half of 2007. Moreover, the continuous increase observed in the CPI was reinforced by the recent snow disaster and the New Year shopping activities. It is estimated that the New Year holiday pushed the February CPI up by 0.53 of a percentage point and that the snow disaster pushed the figure up by 1.03 of a percentage point. Deducting the above two factors, China's CPI rose by one percent or so month on month. In addition, the ballooning prices in the international market have also contributed to this year's fast CPI growth. Since the beginning of 2008, the international prices of crude oil have jumped up by more than seven percent, with the prices of metal and agricultural products soaring by 30-40 percent.