China's consumer inflation grows 6.1 pct in Sept.

By Kim Young-gyo
HONG KONG (Yonhap) - China's consumer prices grew 6.1 percent on-year in September, government data showed Friday, indicating the world's No. 2 economy is still struggling to contain inflation.
The growth rate of the country's consumer price index (CPI), however, was down from 6.2 percent in August but exceeded the 6 percent mark for the fourth month in a row, according to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
The Chinese government's containment target for full 2011 is 4 percent.
Food prices surged 13.4 percent on-year in September, with non-food prices rising 2.9 percent. Compared to the previous month, food prices rose 1.1 percent, while non-food prices were up 0.2 percent.
Meanwhile, China's producer price index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 6.5 percent on-year last month, lower than August's 7.3 percent increase.
Many market watchers expected China's inflationary pressures to ease significantly starting in October, as the country's financial tightening takes effect.
To curb the country's persistent inflation, the central People's Bank of China (PBOC) has raised the benchmark interest rate three times this year, while increasing the amount of money banks must keep in reserve a total of six times.
China is not expected to relax its monetary policy this year as the inflation rate for all of 2011 will almost certainly be higher than 5 percent.