The Producer Price Index (PPI) for China's industrial products
rose by 3.2 percent in October from a year earlier, the National
Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday.
The purchasing price of raw materials, fuel and power rose by
4.5 percent from a year earlier, the NBS said in its monthly
report.
The PPI for means of production was up 3.1 percent and that of
livelihood went up 3.5 percent, said the report.
The price index of food, a major driving force of the country's
CPI, ballooned by 8.6 percent, compared with the growth rate of 1.3
percent for garments and 1.9 percent for daily commodities.
The country's consumer price index (CPI), a major barometer for
inflation, eased slightly to 6.2 percent in September after surging
to an 11-year monthly high of 6.5 percent in August.
Despite the slight drop in September, the CPI for the first nine
months still climbed 0.2 percentage points from 3.9 percent for
January to August.
Zhu Zhixin, deputy director of the National Development and
Reform Commission (NDRC), said about 86 percent of the rise, or 3.5
percentage points, was generated by food price hikes. He predicted
the prices for farm produce, which triggered a drastic rise in the
CPI and sparked inflation concerns, would continue to maintain a
high level.
According to the NBS report, the PPI of crude oil went up 4.2
percent in October from a year earlier. The PPI of diesel and
kerosene rose by 1.5 percent and 0.3 percent, while that of
gasoline went down by 5.0 percent.
The NDRC raised the price of gasoline, diesel oil and aviation
fuel by 500 yuan per ton from November 1 this year, aiming to
reduce the burden on China's oil producers created by the gap
between the international and the domestic crude oil price, which
is fixed by the government.
The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, has
recently stressed that to bring order to the prices of resources
and energy is an inevitable requirement for the balanced growth of
economy. But the reform of resources and energy prices may increase
the pressure on price hikes of these products in a short run.
The NBS's monthly report also revealed that the PPI of
large-sized rolled steel rose by 9.5 percent while that of
medium-sized rolled steel rose by 16.5 percent and that of
small-sized rolled steel rose by 18.8 percent.
Strong demand on the international market was pulling up the
steel prices and the domestic demand for steel and cement was
backed up by the increasing fixed assets investment, according to
an NDRC report.
(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2007)
