A woman picks a cabbage in a grocery market in Nanjing in east China’s Jiangsu province Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021.
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BEIJING — Fresh vegetable prices in China surged by 30.6% in November from a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.
The gains followed a 15.9% year-on-year rise in October, as floods and other extreme weather in recent months have hit farms. Although the bureau noted the supply of vegetables increased in November, prices were still up on a monthly basis by 6.8%.
Investors have been watching for signs of whether rapidly rising prices and stagnant economic activity might further drag down growth.
Other food prices rose in China last month, for an overall increase of 1.6% year on year, amid a global surge. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said its international food price index jumped by 27.3% year on year in November to its highest since June 2011.
In China, the statistics bureau said the price of eggs jumped by 20.1% in November from a year ago, while that of freshwater fish climbed 18%.
The price of pork, a staple in Chinese diets, remained well bellow the highs of last year with a year-on-year decline of 32.7% in November. But pork prices rose 12.2% from October.
The consumer price index — which is highly sensitive to pork prices — overall rose less than expected in November, up 2.3% versus the 2.5% predicted by a Reuters poll.
The producer price index surged by 12.9%, topping expectations of a 12.4% increase. But November’s level marked a slowdown from October, when the index climbed 13.5%.
The producer price index has climbed by record levels this year as commodity prices have soared.
