Pork prices rise by 110.2 per cent, pushing up Chinese inflation

The National Statistics Office released latest economic data. Pork is China’s most widely consumed meat but an African swine fever outbreak cut local supply by 41.4 per cent. The consumer price Index was up 4.5 per cent compared to November 2018, the biggest jump since October 2011.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – In November, consumer prices in China soared to a eight-year high because of the African swine fever epidemic (ASF), which pushed pork prices up by 110.2 per cent year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported.

The consumer price index (CPI) recorded a 4.5 per cent jump compared to November 2018, the biggest jump since October 2011. Food prices contributed 3.7 percentage points to the CPI increase.

Pork is China’s most widely consumed meat. In October, the number of live pigs plunged 41.4 per cent year-on-year, according to Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs data.

The worst of the surge in pork prices may now be over. On a month-on-month basis, they rose by 3.8 per cent in November compared with a 20.1 per cent jump in October.

At the same time, the number of live pigs rose 2 per cent in November, the first increase in a year.

Economists estimate CPI growth will drop to 4.3 per cent year-on-year in December, although it will rebound to around 5.5 per cent in January as demand for pork rises ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which falls at the end of January in 2020.

Apart from food, there is little pressure on other prices. Core CPI — which excludes the more-volatile food and energy prices and which economists say better reflects long-term inflation trends — rose by a more modest 1.4 per cent year-on-year in November, edging down from 1.5 per cent in October, the weakest increase in more than three years.

• china
• inflation
• consumer price index
• cpi
• pork price
• african swine fever
• asf