(Yicai Global) Oct. 14 -- China’s consumer price index, a key gauge of inflation, ticked up 0.7 percent in September from the same period last year, far below the 0.85 percent growth forecast by an Yicai Global poll of chief economists. Meanwhile the producer price index hit a new 13-year high on surging energy costs, according to the latest data.

September’s CPI grew at a pace 0.1 percentage point less in September than in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said today. Food prices, especially that of pork, were the main drag on the CPI, falling 5.2 percent and pulling the index down 0.98 percentage point.

The price of pork plummeted 46.9 percent, a widening of 2 percentage points from August, as supply outstrips demand. The prices of fish, eggs and vegetable oil, though, increased 21 percent, 14.2 percent, and 9.2 percent, respectively. Non-food prices rose 2 percent, boosting the CPI by 1.65 percentage point.

Core CPI, which does not include food and energy prices, stayed stable at 1.2 percent, the same as August, the NBS said.

Factory Prices

Meanwhile factory gate prices added 10.7 percent in September from the same period last year, a widening of 1.2 percentage point from August’s gains, and higher than the 10.16 percent forecast by the Yicai Global survey of chief economists. Thirty-six out of the 40 industrial sectors surveyed had price increases, four more than in August.

The PPI continues to rise due to the surging price of coal which makes products made by high-energy consuming industries more expensive, said Dong Lijuan, senior statistician at the urban surveys department of the National Bureau of Statistics.

Major industries all posted higher prices. Coal mining and washing industry prices soared 74.9 percent, a widening of 17.8 percentage points month on month. Prices in the oil and natural gas extraction industry jumped 43.6 percent, 2.3 percentage points more than in August. Prices in the petroleum, coal and other fuel processing industries leapt 40.5 percent, up 5.2 percentage points.

Together with the ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry, chemical raw material and chemical product manufacturing, and non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry, these six sectors drove the PPI up 8.42 percentage points, accounting for 80 percent of the total increase.

Gasoline and diesel prices also showed sharp increases at 23.4 percent and 25.7 percent respectively. The PPI for non-food products gained 2.8 percent.

Editor: Kim Taylor