China Room to Ease Seen Fading as Pork Costs End Inflation Lull

12-10-2012  Bloomberg

A U.S. drought that pushed soybean and corn prices to records is adding to the risk of a rebound in inflation in China, where consumer-price gains were probably close to the slowest in two years in September.

Inflation was 1.9 percent last month, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey before a report on Oct. 15. Credit Agricole CIB says the rate may approach 4 percent by year-end and Citigroup Inc. estimates a pace of about 3.5 percent.

The prospect of faster price gains in coming months may encourage policy makers to refrain from cutting interest rates for a third time this year, contrasting with reductions in Brazil, South Korea and Australia and adding to the risk economic growth will be the weakest since 1999. Increased grain costs are feeding into pork prices and the government is also battling to prevent a rebound in the housing market.

“Inflation will rise in the fourth quarter as pork and other food prices are expected to climb and housing costs are creeping up,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior economist and strategist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong. “This means there is no room for the central bank to cut interest rates.”

The benchmark one-year lending rate is now 6 percent and the one-year deposit rate stands at 3 percent after reductions in June and July.

Stocks in China have slumped about 15 percent from this year’s high on March 2 on concern the government isn’t loosening monetary policy or introducing stimulus policies fast enough, as the central bank focuses on operations in the money market. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) fell 0.8 percent yesterday.

Currency Strengthens

The yuan rose beyond 6.28 per dollar for the first time in 19 years yesterday on speculation policy makers will act to revive growth and as the central bank raised the currency’s fixing by the most in seven weeks.
Trade figures to be released tomorrow may show some improvement in exports. Overseas shipments probably rose 5.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the median estimate of 35 economists, after a 2.7 percent gain in August. Imports increased 2.4 percent, the survey indicated, after a 2.6 percent drop the previous month.
Industrial output, retail sales, fixed-asset investment and gross domestic product figures are due Oct. 18.
The worst U.S. drought in half a century and dry weather in Europe this year are limiting world corn supplies. In China, officials have sold reserves to limit the effect on costs and monitored prices of cooking oil made from soybeans.

Leadership Handover

A rebound in inflation would complicate efforts to reverse a slowdown that probably extended into a seventh quarter in the three months through September, as the Communist Party prepares for a once-a-decade leadership transition. The People’s Bank of China said last month that it will place a bigger emphasis on price stability in its monetary policy making.
China futures for soybean-meal, the main protein ingredient used in animal feed, advanced to a record last month and wholesale pork prices climbed for seven straight weeks through the week ended Sept. 23.

“The lagged impact of rising corn and soybean prices will push consumer inflation above 3 percent by the year end,” said Yao Wei, China economist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong. “Pork prices may take up the inflation baton in coming months.”

China’s inflation rate in the first eight months of the year was 2.9 percent, National Bureau of Statistics data show. The estimates of 34 economists for September consumer-price gains range from 1.5 percent to 2.2 percent.

Producer Prices

In contrast, September’s producer-price index, which measures prices at the factory gate, probably fell 3.5 percent from a year earlier, the seventh straight drop, the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey showed. That data is also due Oct. 15.

China’s economy expanded 7.6 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the least in three years, as Premier Wen Jiabao's campaign to cool prices damped demand and Europe's debt crisis crimped exports. Growth may have slowed to 7.4 percent in the third quarter, according to the median estimate of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News from Sept. 11 to 18.

The International Monetary Fund on Oct. 9 cut its projection for China’s expansion this year to 7.8 percent, which would be the weakest pace in 13 years. Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, this week reduced its forecast for global consumption of the metal, citing China as the main driver of the slowdown.

--Zheng Lifei. Editors: Nerys Avery, Patrick Harrington