BEIJING, May 10 (UPI) -- China's April inflation eased to 5.3 percent year-on-year from March's 5.4 percent but was up from an earlier forecast, the government said Wednesday.
A survey by China's official Xinhua news agency this week had forecast the consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, would come in at 5.15 percent for April.
The March rate of 5.4 percent was a 32-month high. The April rate was also higher than the first quarter rate of 5 percent and much higher than the government target of 4 percent for the whole year, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
Tang Jianwei, senior economist with the Bank of Communications, had said despite easing of food prices, April CPI would remain above 5 percent because of rising non-food product prices and strong carryover effects.
The National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, said last month inflation was expected to remain high in the second quarter as rising commodity prices would add further to inflationary pressures despite government measures to calm property prices. The commission also had blamed excessive global liquidity for its inflation woes.
Separately, the bureau announced China's producer price index, a main gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 6.8 percent in April year-on-year, down 0.5 percent from March, and down from 7.2 percent forecast in the Xinhua survey.
China's measures to curb inflation so far have included four interest rate hikes since October and several hikes in the banks' reserve requirement ratio since the start of last year. More such hikes are expected for the remainder of 2011.
China's rising foreign exchange reserves, already the highest in the world, are also an area of concern. The reserves currently exceed $3 trillion, which experts say are an indication of rising foreign investments and speculative capital inflows.
China's April trade surplus, which helps boost foreign exchange reserves, soared to $11.43 billion, spurred by strong exports. The monthly surplus was up sharply from the surplus of only $140 million in March, which came on the heels of a deficit in February.
China is under international pressure to allow its yuan to appreciate and the April trade surplus was expected to add to that pressure.
