Here Comes the Porkflation: China CPI Up, PPI Down

China's PPI remains in deflation and the headline number has flipped into deflation. If August prices are similar to July, the headline PPI could be down around 1 percent in August.

China's CPI is running hot as well, but it does "benefit" from favorable year-on-year comparisons. August and September 2018 saw 0.7 percent price increases. That's not good news for Chinese consumers, but it'll help keep the headline CPI from hitting 4 percent.

Pork drove up meat costs. Fruit prices are still way up this year, but came down in July. The first column is the price increase from June, the second the single-month increase vs last year (12 month inflation) and the last is the YTD increase since end of 2018.