Consumer prices in China rose 4.4% in October, their fastest rise in two years, Bloomberg reported. The rate of increase was on the high end of market expectations, and was up sharply from the 3.6% inflation recorded in September. Food prices, which rose 10.1% year-on-year, were a strong contributing factor to the rapid growth. The month also saw banks issue US$88.56 billion in new loans, higher than market expectations, while the broad M2 measure of money supply rose 19.3% year-on-year. Higher headline inflation figures make it more likely that Beijing will institute another interest rate increase before the end of the year.