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Consumer prices in China rose at their fastest pace in 15 months in May, due to high pork prices, after farmers were forced to slaughter pigs in an epidemic context of swine fever African.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, consumer prices rose 2.7% year-on-year in May, up from 2.5% the previous month. The rise was in line with the estimates of economists polled by Reuters.
This increase is mainly due to pork prices, a key component of the index. More than a million pigs have been slaughtered since the first case of swine fever recorded in August, the Ministry of Agriculture announced, thus increasing the cost of meat.
Pork prices rose 18.2% year-on-year in May, pushing up the broader food basket by 7.7%. Food products in general, and pork in particular, weigh more in the Chinese inflation index, reflecting the importance of meat in the national diet.
But economists have warned that overall demand remains moderate. Once the impact of swine fever was taken into account, prices remained unchanged from one month to the next.
"Overall, the recent acceleration in overall inflation should not be interpreted as a sign of rising domestic price pressures," wrote Shilan Shah, a senior economist at Capital Economics in Singapore. "Instead, weak core CPI and PPI inflation rates suggest that demand remains dull."
The outbreak of African swine fever, which appeared along the border between China and Russian Siberia last summer and spread rapidly southward, led to a fall in pork prices in the second half of the year. last year. Farmers ran to sell their herds before suffering losses, baduring slaughterhouses were always well stocked.
Pork prices began to rise sharply this spring, although prices fell 0.3% in April from April. Consumer demand for meat was lower due to "softer weather and other effects," the office said.
The decline in the swine population has helped to reduce Chinese soybean demand over the past year, offsetting the impact of a trade war with the United States on consumer prices at home.
Excluding the impact of food and energy prices, core inflation fell back to 1.6% in May, after 1.7% in April.
Producer price growth slowed to stand at 0.6% year-on-year, compared with 0.9% the month before, as oil prices and manufacturing inputs declined.
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