China's Consumer Price Inflation Slowed in January

Inflation in China, the world's fourth-biggest economy, slowed in January.

Consumer prices rose 2.2 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said today. That was below December's 2.8 percent increase. The median estimate of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was 2.6 percent.

China is trying to prevent the overheating of the world's fourth-biggest economy, which last year expanded 10.7 percent, the fastest pace since 1995. An export boom drove a $15.9 billion trade surplus in January that is pumping cash into the financial system.

Food prices jumped 5 percent, the statistics bureau said. Grain prices climbed 6.9 percent.

Central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan wants inflation of less than 3 percent this year.

The People's Bank of China is ``strongly determined'' to curb inflation and is monitoring the consumer price index and other economic data to act in a ``timely'' manner, Assistant Governor Yi Gang said yesterday.

source:www.bloomberg.com