Beijing: China's inflation rate rose to 8.5 per cent in April, bouncing back to hover near 12-year highs, bringing more pressure on government to tame rising prices, identified by it as the "biggest concern".

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), main gauge of inflation, rose 8.5 per cent from 8.3 per cent in March and remained close to a nearly 12-year monthly high of 8.7 per cent recorded in February, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Food prices accounting for more than a third of the CPI calculation have been the main driver of inflation. Government has been stepping up supplies of grain, pork, staple meat in China and other food items and imposed price controls.

NBS said food prices climbed 22.1 per cent in April, 0.7 percentage points higher than in March.

The price of meat shot up by 47.9 per cent with that of pork soaring 68.3 per cent. Prices of cooking oil price rose 46.6 per cent, vegetables 13.6 per cent, aquatic products 16.1 per cent and grains 7.4 per cent, official Xinhua news agency said quoting NBS.

The first four months saw CPI rise by 8.2 per cent from the same period last year. It was 7.8 per cent rise for urban areas and 8.8 per cent for the countryside.

"Government needs to closely follow future price fluctuation and give more priority to curbing price hikes and preventing inflation," NBS said.

Government has vowed to maintain the CPI at 4.8 per cent this year, the same level as last year and said it would tighten monetary policy among a slew of measures to battle inflation.

China's central bank had recently raised to a record high of 16 per cent the proportion of funds banks must hold in reserve with it in the latest effort to check excess liquidity and curb inflation.
Source : PTI