| China's producer price index up 8.2% in May |
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| Saturday,June 14,2008 Posted: 03:18 BJT(1918 GMT) |
| From:ke Article type:Original |
The producer price index (PPI) for China's industrial products rose 8.2 percent in May over the same month last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said on 11th June.
The PPI, which measures the value of finished products when they leave the factory, is 0.1 percentage points higher than May's 8.1 percent.
The factory-gate prices of raw materials, fuel and power were up 11.8 percent, also 0.1 percentage point higher than the previous month.
Experts said higher ex-factory prices could lead to a rising CPI, as producers may seek to pass on their rising costs to consumers.
China's CPI, a key measure of inflation, was up 8.5 percent in April, following an 8.3-percent rise in March and 8.7 percent in February, according to the NBS.
China has set an annual CPI target of 4.8 percent this year.
Cao Jianhai, chief of Investment and Market Research Office of the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, attributed the PPI increase to rising costs of land, raw materials and labor.
The growing prices of raw materials, fuel and power will push up costs of farm produce, industrial goods, and eventually lead to higher prices of consumer goods and a rising inflation rate, according to Cao.
Factory-gate prices of crude oil surged 30.9 percent in May over the same period last year, while gasoline was up 11 percent, diesel 11.8 percent and kerosene 11.4 percent.
The producer prices of raw coal jumped 24.1 percent and those of steel products rose between 26.7 percent and 43.8 percent.
The purchasing prices, or costs, of fuel and power rose 21 percent, ferrous metals 22.1 percent, non-ferrous metals 3.4 percent and chemical raw materials 6.2 percent.
The PPI for manufactured goods was up 7.4 percent in the first five months, while the cost of raw materials, fuel and power rose 10.6 percent.
The price index of food, a major component of the consumer price index (CPI), was up 11 percent, exceeding that for garments (2.4 percent) and daily commodities (3.9 percent). The price of consumer durables was down 0.5 percent, said the NBS.
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