Chinese factory prices rise for the first time in 12 months

BEIJING (Reuters) – Factory-gate prices in China rose in January for the first time in 12 months and at the fastest pace since May 2019, official data showed on Wednesday, suggesting accelerating growth for the second largest economy in the world.

The Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.3% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement, but slightly delayed a 0.4% gain announced by a Reuters survey of analysts. The PPI fell 0.4% in December.

China’s economy is expected to grow 8.4% this year, after rising 2.3% in 2020 following the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the country to shut down for much of the March quarter of the year. ‘last year.

But a resurgence of the disease last month, though mostly isolated in Hebei Province surrounding Beijing and northeastern provinces, has raised concerns about temporary disruptions in production.

Some regional authorities have put strict measures in place, including home quarantines and travel restrictions to contain what was the country’s worst outbreak since March 2020.

Chinese factories’ activity grew at the slowest pace in five months in January, according to official data, reflecting the epidemic’s impact on production as well as services, including logistics and transportation, so that the country was seeking to contain COVID-19 ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.

China fails to release several key data sets such as trade, industrial production and retail sales for January and instead releases combined January-February figures in March, leaving markets with fewer data points to assess the health of the economy.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) unexpectedly fell 0.3% in January from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said in a separate statement, compared to no change indicated by the poll Reuters and up 0.2% in December.