Just hours after China revealed yet another high in producer price inflation, Beijing has taken the unprecedented step of releasing oil from its national crude reserve to “alleviate raw material price pressures.” Overnight, China reported that factory gate inflation hit a 13-year high in August – even as CPI came in slightly below expectations at 0.8% vs Exp. driven by roaring raw materials prices despite Beijing’s attempts to cool them, putting more pressure on manufacturers in the world’s second-largest economy. The producer price index rose 9.5% from a year earlier in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday, faster than the 9.0% increase tipped in a Reuters poll and the 9.0% reported in July. That was the fastest pace since August 2008. China’s economy has recovered strongly from last year’s coronavirus slump but has been losing steam recently due to domestic COVID-19 outbreaks, high raw material prices, […]