China producer price growth hits eight-year high

China’s producer price growth rose to the fastest pace in more than eight years last month, while consumer inflation softened markedly, the Financial Times reports. The sixth straight month of expansion for China’s producer price index reported by the National Bureau of Statistics came in at 7.8%, the fastest pace since September 2008 and barely edging out a median forecast of 7.7%. In month-on-month terms, however, producer price growth softened to 0.6%, down 0.2 percentage points. That was due in part to a fallback in price rises for oil and gas extraction, coal extraction and coal washing, which together pulled down the headline figure by just over a quarter of a percentage point. Consumer price growth saw a marked fall, meanwhile, as the official consumer price index registered year-on-year rise of 0.8%, down from 2.5% in January and less than half expectations of 1.7%.