China factory-gate prices hit six-month high

China’s factory-gate prices shot up to a six-month high last month, the latest surprise for an economy that has defied many economists’ expectations of a slowdown, according to The Wall Street Journal. China’s producer prices in September rose 6.9% compared with the same period a year ago, according to China’s statistics bureau. That pace was faster than a 6.3% increase in August and beat the 6.4% forecast by economists. The result was another indication of the Chinese economy’s resilience. Before the release of Monday’s inflation data, China’s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said over the weekend that the world’s second-largest economy may post 7% growth in the second half of the year, higher than the first-half’s 6.9%. Driving up the producer-price index were prices for steel and other metals, which have risen in response to infrastructure spending, while Beijing’s campaign to reduce industrial capacity and speculation that market will tighten also contributed to higher prices, said Julian Evans-Pritchard, an economist with Capital Economics.