China producer prices jump in March as demand goes up

AFP, BEIJING: Prices for goods at the factory gate in China jumped in March, the government said yesterday, in a positive sign of strengthening demand for the world’s second-largest economy.
The producer price index (PPI) rose 7.6 percent year-on-year in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, slightly beating economists’ expectations of a 7.5 percent increase in a Bloomberg News survey.
Factory gate inflation “has eased”, NBS analyst Sheng Guoqing said in a statement, noting that March’s figure fell back from a 7.8 percent increase in February after five months of expansion. The February figures reflected the fastest increase since September 2008, raising hopes that the pick-up in prices could trickle down to other economies.
For years the world economy has been mired in tepid inflation or deflation which, if persistent, tends to be bad for industrial prospects and economic growth because customers delay purchases in hopes of getting cheaper deals in the future, starving companies of business and funds.
China’s economy, a vital engine of global growth, expanded 6.7 percent for all of last year, the slowest rate in a quarter of a century. But a slight uptick in the last three months of 2016 provided signs of stabilisation.
The upward trend in the prices for goods at the factory gate is a positive signal, Dariusz Kowalczyk at Credit Agricole SA told Bloomberg News.

China producer prices jump in March as demand goes up

AFP, BEIJING: Prices for goods at the factory gate in China jumped in March, the government said yesterday, in a positive sign of strengthening demand for the worlds second-largest economy. The producer price index (PPI) rose 7.6 percent year-on-year in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, slightly beating economists expectations of a 7.5 percent increase in a Bloomberg News survey. Factory gate inflation has eased, NBS analyst Sheng Guoqing said in a statement, noting that Marchs figure fell back from a 7.8 percent increase in February after five months of expansion. The February figures reflected the fastest increase since September 2008, raising hopes that the pick-up in prices could trickle down to other economies. For years the world economy has been mired in tepid inflation or deflation which, if persistent, tends to be bad for industrial prospects and economic growth because customers delay purchases in hopes of getting cheaper deals in the future, starving companies of business and funds. Chinas economy, a vital engine of global growth, expanded 6.7 percent for all of last year, the slowest rate in a quarter of a century. But a slight uptick in the last three months of 2016 provided signs of stabilisation. The upward trend in the prices for goods at the factory gate is a positive signal, Dariusz Kowalczyk at Credit Agricole SA told Bloomberg News.