ANKARA

China’s annual inflation rate rose to 2.1% in April, up from 1.5% in March, according to official data released on Wednesday.

The figure exceeded the market expectation of 1.8% and was the highest since last November, driven largely by logistics disruptions caused by COVID-19 lockdowns in major cities.

Food prices increased for the first time in five months, climbing 1.9%, the highest since October 2020, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics.

Beijing has kept its inflation target for this year at 3%, unchanged from 2021.

Month-on-month, consumer prices were up 0.4% in April, exceeding the expected figure of a 0.2% rise after a flat reading in March.

The producer price index, meanwhile, increased 8% year-on-year in April, the data showed.