China inflation: factory-gate prices rise at fastest pace on record due to surging coal costs amid power crisis

China’s official producer price index (PPI) rose by 10.7 per cent in September from a year earlier, compared with 9.5 per cent in August

The consumer price index (CPI) rose by 0.7 per cent in September from a year earlier, compared with a 0.8 per cent rise in August

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China’s consumer price index (CPI) rose by 0.7 per cent in September from a year earlier, compared with a 0.8 per cent rise in August. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:33am, 14 Oct 2021Updated: 11:52am, 16 Nov 2021

**Editors note: since this story was published, China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) updated its database with more historical data. Data before October 1996 had been unavailable until the update pushed the available records back to January 1993. Given the update, the producer price index (PPI) reading for September was not an all-time high.**

Factory-gate inflation in China rose to the highest level on record in September, data released on Thursday showed.

The producer price index (PPI), which reflects the prices factories charge wholesalers for their products, rose by 10.7 per cent in September from a year earlier, up from a gain of 9.5 per cent in August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

This was above expectations of analysts in a Bloomberg survey, who had predicted a rise to 10.5 per cent.

The reading in September is the highest since the start of the NBS database in October 1996 after the index hit 10.0 in August 2008 and 10.1 the following month.

In September, affected by factors such as rising prices of coal and some energy-intensive industries, the price increase of industrial products continued to expand

Dong Lijuan

The increase was largely driven by a 74.9 per cent year on year rise in the coal mining sector in September, up from a rise of 57.1 per cent in August.

“In September, affected by factors such as rising prices of coal and some energy-intensive industries, the price increase of industrial products continued to expand,” said NBS spokeswoman Dong Lijuan, who added that among 40 industrial sectors surveyed, 36 saw price hikes.