China’s Inflation Problem

China’s inflation rate has climbed to a twelve year high with consumer prices 8.5 per cent higher than they were a year ago. Much of this is the result of the spiraling cost of food (22 per cent higher over the last twelve months).

China is indeed one of the factors behind the strong global demand for food which is forcing prices higher, China’s GDP per capita has risen five times as fast as US GDP per capita over the last five years and with it, the demand for meat has increased. It takes around 8kgs of grain to produce 1kg of meat.

Food prices hit the real incomes of Chinese people much more than their western counterparts. Research from Deutsche Bank finds that the weighting of food in the consumer price index varies greatly from country to country:

USA 13.8%
Euro Zone 14.5%
Brazil: 29.3%
Russia: 40.2%
India: 26.9%
China 33.6%

Commodity prices normally fall quite steeply when the world economy enters a slowdown – but there are strong supply-side reasons for believing that the age of cheap food is well and truly over. For the moment the key challenge for the Chinese authorities is to engineer a slowdown in growth to avoid the risks posed by demand-pull and cost-push inflationary pressures.

More here from the BBC website and also from the Times

Unit 2 Macro: Evaluation on Supply-Side Policies [21 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Migration and the UK Economy [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Measuring Inflation in the UK [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Real Interest Rates [20 May 2012]
Q&A: What do we need to know about output gaps? [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Output Gap [20 May 2012]
Revision notes on unemployment [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Bank Cuts UK growth Forecast for 2012 [16 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Notes on Supply-side Policies [10 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Model answer for revision data question [9 May 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: The Dawn of a Shareholder Spring? [8 May 2012]
Made in China - but not quite so cheaply…... [7 May 2012]
F585: Recent Articles of Relevance [6 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Growth and Development Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Monetary Policy and Inflation Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Aggregate Demand Glossary [5 May 2012]
Macro Revision - Key Statistics on the UK Economy [4 May 2012]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [29 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: The Third Industrial Revolution [20 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Globalisation and the Growth of Ports [10 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Inflation and the Business Environment [6 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Productivity Improvements in China [3 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Real Economic Data [2 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Real Disposable Income [2 Apr 2012]
Posen on slower growth in the UK compared to the USA [30 Mar 2012]
Global Economy- the 2012 BRICS Summit [28 Mar 2012]
Life in the Slow Lane - UK Growth in 2011 Lags the Euro Area [28 Mar 2012]
Beyond the Bike - Monetary Policy in Africa [28 Mar 2012]
OCR A2 Economics Unit F585 The Global Economy June 2012 [27 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Evaluating 3 Years of Quantitative Easing [27 Mar 2012]
Solar Panels and Tariffs [21 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Video Resources on the Euro Crisis [10 Mar 2012]
Evidence of the dangers of protectionism [9 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Policies to Drive Economic Recovery [9 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Might Oil Prices Bring another Recession? [4 Mar 2012]
Economies hooked on central bank stimulants? [4 Mar 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Volkswagen targets growth markets [25 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Rosling on China and the UK Converging [24 Feb 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: King on the UK Economy [15 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: China’s Trade Engine is Spluttering [10 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Signs of Progress for Zimbabwe [29 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Trade and Growth [27 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Inflation [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Carbon Emissions and Growth [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Per Capita Incomes [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Changing Economic Structure [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Focus on India - Supply Side Issues [25 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Can China Stay Competitive [25 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Population Shift in China [23 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Exporting to the Booming Chinese Economy [23 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Money, Debt and the New World Order [22 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Russia Joins the WTO [22 Jan 2012]
Inflation - what’s up, what’s down and what’s going to happen next [17 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Videos on Productivity [17 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Look Upwards to Find the next Downturn [15 Jan 2012]
China’s newest 5 year plan - and how it could change the world! [12 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Quantitative Easing in the UK [8 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Brazil Overtakes UK in Economic Size [26 Dec 2011]
Rising prices and falling real incomes [13 Dec 2011]
Jim O’Neill - The Growth Map: Economic Opportunity in the BRICs and Beyond [22 Nov 2011]
Beyond the Bike - The Value of Money [19 Nov 2011]
AS Macro: The State of British Business [13 Nov 2011]
Latest world trade data [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: China and India - Notes from Martin Wolf [6 Nov 2011]
Australia lowers interest rate to 4.5% [1 Nov 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Economists attack food price speculation [24 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: World Food Day [16 Oct 2011]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Unit Labour Costs and Inflation [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: UK Inflation Charts [12 Oct 2011]
The Return of Protectionism? [12 Oct 2011]
University Challenged [11 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: USA edges closer to naming China as a “Currency Manipulator” [4 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: When China Met Africa [1 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: IMF Flags up Risks of Double Dip [20 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Bangladesh and Comparative Advantage in Textiles [19 Sep 2011]
Inflation in India [18 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Interest Rates and Income Inequality [16 Sep 2011]
Study Note - Macroeconomic policy objectives [16 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Growth and Inequality [14 Sep 2011]
Toilet rolls, soap and climate change [1 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: GDP per person since the credit crunch [19 Aug 2011]
Guess where China exports its chopsticks from [7 Aug 2011]
Capital labour substitution at FoxConn [2 Aug 2011]
Monetary Policy Roundtable [25 Jul 2011]
A surprising example of trade between the USA, China, and Korea. [19 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Cotton Prices and the Retail Price of Clothing [13 Jul 2011]
Harry Potter shows that China isn’t quite a market economy yet! [13 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of Volatile Corn Prices [12 Jul 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Dangers of High Inflation [11 Jul 2011]
China: The End of Cheap Labour [28 Jun 2011]
AS Micro: Fears over a century of hunger [22 Jun 2011]
AQA ECON4 Context [20 Jun 2011]
Chinese inward investment in the London property market [12 Jun 2011]
Development Econ: Wealth and Inequality in China [10 Jun 2011]
Do tariffs actually reduce imports? [26 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Supply-Side Policies [25 May 2011]
AQA Macro: Remember to revise inflation [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Demand Pull Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Deflation [24 May 2011]

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