Inflation in China accelerated in January as the world’s second-largest economy emerged from almost three years of strict COVID-19 controls, reports The Wall Street Journal. Economists expect China’s reopening to put pressure on prices at home and around the world this year, though the impact probably won’t be enough to prevent a gradual slowdown in global inflation as higher interest rates cool economic growth.
China’s consumer prices in January were up 2.1% from a year earlier, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics said Friday, accelerating from December’s 1.8% annual rate but slightly below the 2.2% expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
Beijing ditched its zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19 in December, an abrupt reversal that came at the end of a year in which economic growth was hammered by sporadic lockdowns as the government wrestled to control fast-spreading variants of the virus.