At the Chongwenmen food market in central Beijing yesterday, the talk was all of higher prices for winter vegetables – Chinese cabbage, potatoes and white turnip. “Even the price of spinach is much higher,” says He Yang, a retired worker who lives nearby.
Northern China is suffering a severe cold snap that is putting pressure on vegetable prices. However, the grumbling at Chongwenmen might also be the harbinger of a much bigger problem – a sign that the massive monetary expansion of the past year is now sparking inflation.
Indeed, consumer price inflation jumped from a rate of 0.6 per cent year-on-year in November to 1.9 per cent last month. And vegetable prices rose 16 per cent month on month.
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