China Producer Prices Turn Negative
Prices charged by Chinese companies at the factory gate recorded their first annual fall in almost two years, another downbeat signal for the global economy as bulging inventories and cautious consumers in the West hit overseas demand for Chinese-made goods.
Chinese producer prices fell 1.3% in October compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday, the country’s first year-over-year decline in producer-price inflation since December 2020.
The decline reflects weaker prices for the producers of raw materials following a recent pullback in commodity prices, as well as a high base for comparison because of rapid price rises a year earlier. The data come on the heels of ugly export figures released Monday that showed a surprise drop in Chinese exports to the rest of the world last month.
Taken together, the weakness in the world’s second-largest economy points to a global economy that is losing steam as central banks led by the Federal Reserve in the U.S. ratchet up interest rates to contain rocketing inflation.
Chinese producer prices fell 1.3% in October compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday, the country’s first year-over-year decline in producer-price inflation since December 2020.
The decline reflects weaker prices for the producers of raw materials following a recent pullback in commodity prices, as well as a high base for comparison because of rapid price rises a year earlier. The data come on the heels of ugly export figures released Monday that showed a surprise drop in Chinese exports to the rest of the world last month.
Taken together, the weakness in the world’s second-largest economy points to a global economy that is losing steam as central banks led by the Federal Reserve in the U.S. ratchet up interest rates to contain rocketing inflation.
