We have seen street breakfast vendors raising the price tag for tea egg (flavored boiled egg) from sixty cents to one yuan, and heard local shoppers constantly complaining that cabbage, Beijing’s staple vegetable in winter, was twice as expensive as it was last year. Now it seems that the government eventually confirms what we have been seeing and hearing.
Today’s Beijing News ran a top headline: Food price surge pushes CPI growth beyond 4%. CPI, or Consumer Price Index is a major economic indicator for inflation.
According to the latest numbers released by National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC), in the past October, CPI had grown by 4.4%, the highest in 25 months. At the beginning of the year, the government’s announced that its annual target was to maintain CPI growth at below 3%. Among the many factors that contributes to the CPI rise, the non-staple food prices have increased by 31 percent.
Sheng Laiyun, spokesman of NBSC attributed the food prices surge to cost increase, monetary fluidity, natural disaster, and the price rise of agricultural products in the international market.
The big image on the front page shows two truckloads of fireworks arrived in Beijing to supply the Spring Festival market.
- The Beijing News (Chinese): Food price surge pushes CPI growth beyond 4%