September 15, 2011
China's pork prices, a key driver of inflation, rose 0.7% in the week ending September 11 to a record high from the previous week, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed Wednesday (Sep 14).
That was the fifth consecutive weekly rise in pork prices and represented an acceleration from weekly increases of 0.4% and 0.3% in the weeks ending September 4 and August 28, respectively.
Chinese inflation eased to 6.2% in August from July's three-year high of 6.5%, as price rises of food, including pork, slowed.
Combating inflation remains Beijing's top policy priority despite worries about a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy threatened by the worsening European debt crisis and a possible recession in the US.
Spikes in pork prices have constantly driven up Chinese consumer inflation, although the meat only accounts for 3% of China's consumer price index basket.
In August, pork prices rose 45.5% from a year earlier, contributing 1.27 percentage points to the annual inflation, according to official data.
In July, pork prices rose 56.7%, contributing 1.46 percentage points to the month's inflation rate.
A senior Chinese industry official and the China mission chief of the International Monetary Fund both warned against cyclical rises in pork prices, which could delay China's escape from stubbornly high inflation.