official data showed that shenzhen's consumer price index (cpi) in january climbed by 2.8 percent compared with the same period last year, which is the highest index since august last year, the shenzhen special zone daily reported over the weekend.
data from the shenzhen survey office of the national statistics bureau showed that food prices in shenzhen grew by 4.9 percent and the price of non-food goods increased by 2.4 percent in january compared with the same period last year, while the prices of consumer products and service items went up by 1.7 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively.
prices of some vegetables soared to over 20 yuan (us$3.07) for half a kilogram in shenzhen during the spring festival holiday.
a staff member at the shenzhen survey office said that the amount of vegetables coming to shenzhen from yunnan and other provinces dropped sharply in late january because of the cold weather.
the employee added that the short supply has driven up vegetable prices by 13.4 percent on average, with the price of lettuce soaring by 35.8 percent.
meanwhile, the price of pork rose by 1.6 percent and the prices of shrimp and crab jumped by 8.8 percent because of the cold weather and residents' hoarding food before the festival.
"the prices of certain drugs also witnessed rapid growth and had an influence on the rising cpi," the staffer said, adding that the price of nutritional supplements is up by 6.1 percent in 2016 over last year and the prices of chinese medicine and western medicine both went up by 1.4 percent.
the surge of holiday trips drove up flight ticket prices by 13.9 percent and the service fees of travel agencies by 4.5 percent during the spring festival.
the prices of long-distance buses soared by 9.6 percent in the meantime, while housekeeping service prices jumped by 3 percent, according to the report.
