BEIJING: China’s producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, saw a more than expected year-on-year increase of 6.8 percent in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday.
The figure beat the average forecast of 6.2-percent increase by 15 institutions, where CITIC Securities had predicted the high end of a 6.9-percent rise in April PPI, while China Merchants Securities had expected it to rise by only 4.6 percent year on year.
“The sharp rise in PPI inflation was boosted by a low base and the continued rise in commodity and raw material prices, as a result of recovering global demand and a wide range of supply constraints,” Lu Ting, chief China economist at Nomura told CGTN.
Lu expected PPI inflation to exceed 7 percent year on year in May, as commodity prices have powered ahead in early May.
The consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, according to the NBS, posted a year-on-year increase of 0.9 percent in April.
The April CPI met the average forecast by 15 institutions, data from the Wind Financial Terminal showed.
–The Daily Mail-CGTN News exchange item
