Soaring Pork Prices Keep China’s Inflation at 7-Year High

People shop for meat at a supermarket in Handan in northern China's Hebei Province on Jan. 9, 2020. Soaring pork prices that nearly doubled in December over a year ago kept inflation at a seven-year high despite government efforts to ease meat shortages caused by a disease outbreak. Chinatopix via AP

BEIJING—Soaring pork prices that nearly doubled in December over a year ago kept inflation at a seven-year high despite government efforts to ease meat shortages caused by a disease outbreak, official data showed on Jan. 9.

Surging inflation adds to challenges for communist leaders who are trying to shore up slowing economic growth and resolve a tariff war with Washington.