China consumer inflation jumps to 2.3% in Feb

Beijing

CHINA'S consumer inflation jumped to 2.3 per cent in February, its highest in nearly two years, official data showed on Thursday, in a positive sign for demand in the world's second-largest economy.

Food prices surged during the annual Chinese New Year holiday, with pork prices jumping 25.4 per cent year-on-year, and vegetables up a hefty 30.6 per cent. The rise in the consumer price index (CPI) released by the National Bureau of Statistics was the largest since July 2014, and came in ahead of forecasts of 1.8 per cent in a survey by Bloomberg News.