China’s factory-gate prices rose more than expected in March as oil prices climbed, while disruptions from Covid lockdowns drove up food costs, threatening the inflation outlook in the world’s second-largest economy. The producer price index gained 8.3% from a year earlier, official data showed Monday, down from 8.8% in February and above the median estimate of an 8.1% increase in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Consumer-price growth accelerated to 1.5% after staying unchanged at 0.9% for two months. The war in Ukraine has pushed up the cost of global commodities including oil, adding to economic pressures as China battles it worst Covid outbreak in two years. Lockdowns to curb the spread of infections across several cities and provinces have disrupted food supplies, driving up prices for […]