China’s Factory Inflation Hits 13-year High as Materials Costs Soar

Workers make iron bars in a steel factory in Lianyungang, in China's eastern Jiangsu Province, on Feb. 12, 2021. AFP via Getty Images

BEIJING—China’s factory gate inflation hit a 13-year high in August driven by roaring raw materials prices despite Beijing’s attempts to cool them, putting more pressure on manufacturers in the world’s second-largest economy.

The producer price index (PPI) rose 9.5 percent from a year earlier in August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday, faster than the 9.0 percent increase tipped in a Reuters poll and the 9.0 percent reported in July. That was the fastest pace since August 2008.