Official data showed that China’s CPI (consumer price index), an index of inflation, rose by 3.8 percent in October compared to the same month in 2018, the highest year-on-year growth in the last seven years.
Experts attributed the rise to the growing price of pork, the supply of which has been heavily impacted by African Swine Fever, a communicable disease spread among domesticated pigs and wild boars.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MoAR), China’s average wholesale price of pork rose to 51.8 yuan (US$7.4) per kilogram in the last week of October, a 165 percent growth compared to that in the same period of 2018.
The Chinese government has launched an array of measures to encourage pig raising and control the price rise, including increasing loans and allowances for pig farmers and releasing pork reserves to the market.
Wei Baigang, director of MoAR’s development and planning department, told the China News Service that pork production, thanks to the measures rolled out, is expected to rebound by the end of the year and get back to normal levels by 2020.
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