China's inflation tops forecasts as supply pressures worsen

BEIJING, April 11 - China's factory-gate and consumer prices rose faster than expected in March as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, persistent supply chain bottlenecks and production snags caused by local COVID flare-ups added to commodity cost pressures.

The surge in raw materials costs is hobbling economies worldwide and in China has raised questions among some analysts about just how much its central bank will be able to ease monetary policy.

China's producer price index (PPI) increased 8.3% year-on-year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday. While that was slower than the 8.8% seen in February, it beat a forecast for a 7.9% rise in a Reuters poll.

Upstream pressures pushed up consumer prices, which rose 1.5% year-on-year, the fastest in three months, speeding up from 0.9% in February and beating expectations of 1.2%.