China Inflation Takes Off After Holiday Boost as Oil Shock Looms

China’s consumer-price growth accelerated to the quickest in over three years and factory deflation moderated again, after a rally in energy markets and as household spending boomed during a later-than-usual Lunar New Year holiday.

The consumer-price index climbed faster than all forecasts in February and reached 1.3% from a year earlier, after a 0.2% rise in January, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was 0.9%.

Producer prices narrowed their drop to 0.9% from a year earlier, the least since July 2024, even while declining for a ...