(Beijing) Consumer prices in November saw their largest increase in China in 15 months, with an increase of 2.3% year on year, announced Thursday the National Bureau of Statistics (SNB).
The consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, is thus up sharply compared to October (+ 1.5% over one year). This is its biggest increase since August 2020.
The increase in the index is however lower than the predictions of analysts, who on average expected an increase of 2.5%, according to the financial agency Bloomberg.
The rise in the cost of living in the world’s second-largest economy is primarily linked to a recovery in food prices, noted SNB official Dong Lijuan.
Prices for pork, by far the most consumed meat in China, were notably up 12.2% month over month.
The price of pork has doubled in recent years due to an African swine fever epidemic which has decimated Chinese farms. But the prices had known a lull since the beginning of the year with the ebb of the disease.
This time around, prices started to rise again due to increased seasonal demand and reduced supply, Dong noted.
The population stores more food products at the onset of winter, noted Julian Evans-Pritchard, of Capital Economics, in a recent analyst note.
In addition, “the supply of pork does not seem to increase any more,” he stressed.
The authorities had prompted precautionary purchases in early November by calling on the population to build up food reserves, in a context of limited epidemic resurgence, accompanied by containment measures.
On the producer price side, inflation eased slightly last month, rising only 12.9% year-on-year after 13.5% in October, a figure that was a 26-year high.
The slowdown is linked to the authorities’ efforts to improve the supply of raw materials to factories, Dong said, noting that the surge in coal and metal prices had slowed.