China's consumer price index (CPI) in September increased 3 percent year-on-year, its fastest pace for nearly six years, almost hitting the control target of around 3 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistic (NBS) on Tuesday. Food prices, notably the price of pork, continued to rise and contributed to the rising CPI.

According to the NBS, while core CPI for non-food products increased only 1 percent, CPI for food prices surged 11.2 percent, compared to the 10 percent increase in August. Pork prices in September jumped 69.3 percent, compared to 46.7 percent in August, contributing around 1.65 percentage points to the rise of the overall CPI in September.  

The jump in pork prices in September is nearing the control figure of around 3 percent. This is still largely driven by short-term causes such as the diminishing supply of pork due to African swine fever which has been an issue since August 2018, Tian Yun, vice director of the Beijing Economic Operation Association, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

A series of support policies have been rolled out to combat the impact of African swine fever. In September, the government tapped into the state pork reserves and released 10,000 tons of frozen pork to stabilize market supply. A total of 30,000 tons of pork reserves had been released into the market by the end of September.

Pork imports also soared during the first nine months this year. According to data released by the General Administration of Customs (GAC) on Monday, around 1.33 million tons of pork were imported from January to September, up 43.6 percent year-on-year.

"As the US and China are approaching a deal, imports from the US are expected to rise in the near future," Tian said, "and the price of pork will be largely contained."

China's producer price index (PPI) dropped 1.2 percent year-on-year, according to the NBS on Tuesday.