The producer prices are seen as a leading indicator of future inflation.
(Photo: dpa)
Beijing Because of power outages, expensive raw materials and supply bottlenecks, Chinese industrial companies raised their prices in September more sharply than ever before. The producer prices rose by 10.7 percent compared to the same month last year, as the statistics office announced in Beijing on Thursday. There has never been such a sharp increase since the survey began in October 1996. Economists had expected an inflation rate of 10.5 percent after it had been 9.5 percent in August.
The producer prices are considered to be a leading indicator for the development of inflation. In the statistics, the prices are kept ex-factory – i.e. before the products are further processed or go on sale. You can use it to give an early indication of the development of consumer prices.
The higher prices at export world champion China could also be felt by German consumers: Germany does not import more goods from any other country in the world, in 2020 imports from the People’s Republic totaled 116.3 billion euros.
In the People’s Republic, inflation for consumers has so far been low. Consumer prices rose by just 0.7 percent in September compared to the same month last year. Analysts had expected a somewhat stronger increase of 0.9 percent. “There are still bottlenecks on the supply side, and demand has been weak, so that manufacturers cannot pass on increased costs,” said Commerzbank economist Zhou Hao. “This is a painful process that the Chinese economy has to go through.”
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Numerous Chinese factories recently reported production disruptions. One reason for this is the shortage of electricity in the world’s second largest economy after the USA. The government is accelerating the transition to clean energy, which is why old and dirty plants in particular are shutting down.
Together with booming industrial demand and high raw material prices, this has repeatedly led to a standstill in factories, including those of global corporations like Apple.
More: IMF revises growth forecast and warns of an inflation spiral