China's inflation easing as global markets fear price gains amid growth

It's an about-turn from a year ago when China was a key source of the reflation that buoyed markets and propelled economic growth

China’s ability to export inflation to the world appears to be waning, right at a time when investors are worried that global prices are taking off amid faster economic growth.

Factory prices, which feed through into the prices export customers pay, are continuing to soften, suggesting the world’s biggest trading nation won’t be passing on much more by way of inflation in the near term. The producer price index rose 4.3 per cent in January from a year earlier, its third month of slowing, and consumer prices climbed 1.5 per cent. 

It’s an about-turn from a year ago when China was a