BEIJING--Chinese consumer inflation eased to its lowest level in 11 years in October as pork prices retreated amid a recovery in supply, official data showed Tuesday.
China's consumer price index rose 0.5% in October from a year earlier, down from September's 1.7% increase, the National Bureau of Statistics said. That missed the 0.8% increase expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
The sharp moderation in consumer inflation was due to a high base from a year ago, when pork--the most widely consumed source of protein in China--was in the midst of a 19-month run-up in prices, said Dong Lijun, an economist with the statistics bureau.
Food prices rose 2.0% last month from the year before, sharply lower than September's 7.9% increase, as pork prices fell 2.8%.
More than half of China's pig population was wiped out by African swine fever, which broke out in 2018. At their peak in February, pork prices were at more than twice their levels from a year earlier, according to data from the statistics bureau.
The number of hogs and breeding sows in China has since recovered to 80% of pre-swine fever levels, and the pork supply is expected to recover fully during the second half of 2021, Wang Bing at China's commerce ministry said over the weekend.
Non-food prices stayed flat in October from a year earlier for the second consecutive month. Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.5%, sustaining the same rate of year-on-year increase for four straight months.
Industrial deflation remained unchanged last month, with the producer price index falling 2.1%, the bureau said. The reading was just off the 2.0% decline expected by economists.
Profitability at China's industrial companies continued to recover from the coronavirus shock at the beginning of the year. Industrial profit rose 10.1% in September.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-09-20 2119ET
