Tue, Feb 19 2008, 02:34 GMT
http://www.afxnews.com
BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China's consumer price index (CPI) rose 7.1 pct year-on-year in January, the National Bureau of Statistics said, with the indicator surging to its highest level in over 11 years after weather-related disruptions late in the month.
XFN-Asia affiliate Market News International, citing sources, reported yesterday that CPI rose 7.1 pct year-on-year in January.
The official Xinhua News Agency also reported several minutes prior to the official release that CPI rose 7.1 pct.
In 2007, CPI grew 4.8 pct.
The NBS said urban CPI rose 6.8 pct year-on-year in January, while rural CPI was up 7.7 pct.
Food prices rose 18.2 pct year-on-year last month while non-food prices were up 1.5 pct.
Consumer goods prices rose 8.5 pct year-on-year, with services prices up 2.6 pct.
Grain prices rose 5.7 pct from a year earlier, egg prices were up 4.6 pct, and meat and poultry prices were up 41.2 pct.
Seafood prices rose 8.7 pct, while fresh vegetable prices were up 13.7 pct and fresh fruit prices rose 10.3 pct.
Tobacco prices were up 0.4 pct in January while spirits rose 5.3 pct.
The cost of household services and maintenance rose 2.1 pct while prices for medical care and personal utilities rose 3.2 pct.
Western medicine prices rose 0.5 pct in January from a year earlier, while traditional Chinese medicine prices rose 11.4 pct.
Urban transportation costs rose 0.4 pct, while communications costs fell 19.6 pct.
Recreation, education and culture and related services prices fell 0.3 pct.
Residential and rental prices were up 6.1 pct and 4.7 pct.
Forex - US dollar higher on short-covering
Tue, Feb 19 2008, 00:42 GMT
http://www.afxnews.com
SYDNEY (Thomson Financial) - The US dollar was higher against other major currencies midway through the morning session in Sydney on Tuesday as investors covered short dollar positions following last week's sell-off on continuing signs of trouble in the US economy.
The euro was at 1.4646 US dollars after rising to 1.4660 US dollars in late London trade. Sterling was at 1.95 US dollars, compared to 1.9525 US dollars overnight after the UK government's decision to nationalize troubled mortgage lender Northern Rock.
The US dollar was buying 108.2 yen, compared to 108.18 yen overnight.
Trading was subdued, with US markets closed for a public holiday.
"There was a lot of position covering on Monday by a market that ended last week short US dollars due to the weak US data, a grim [Federal Reserve chairman Ben] Bernanke and heightened expectations that the Fed will ease aggressively in the short term," said John Noonan, an analyst at Thomson IFR.
Bernanke warned last week that further interest rate cuts might be needed to boost consumer and business spending in the flagging US economy, which eroded support for the greenback.
NAB Capital head of currency strategy John Kyriakopoulos said he sees potential upside for the US dollar.
"We are wary of getting too bearish on the US dollar since there's already a lot of bad news on the US economy priced [in], with expectations that the Fed funds rate [will be] lowered to just 2 percent by August," said Kyriakopoulos.
"Moreover, the possibility of further writedowns by European banks is significant. Deutsche Bank CEO [Josef] Ackermann said German banks may face further writedowns and that it would probably take another 6-9 months for the financial crisis to pass."
Sydney 11.00 am (0000 GMT)
US dollar
108.2 yen
1.1019 sfr
Euro
1.4646 usd
158.46 yen
1.6143 sfr
0.7511 stg
Sterling
1.95 usd
211.016 yen
2.14980 sfr
Australian dollar
0.9165 usd
0.4699 stg
99.18 yen
New Zealand dollar
0.7966 usd
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