China’s consumer prices rose for the first time since August, breaking a contraction streak that has put growth potential in the world’s second-largest economy under pressure. The consumer price index increased 0.7% in February from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday, rebounding from the biggest drop since 2009 in January. The gain was higher than analysts’ estimates of a 0.3% gain in a Bloomberg survey. Producer prices fell 2.7%, continuing the longest string of declines since 2016. “I think it is too early to conclude that deflation in China is over,” said Zhang Zhiwei, ... (full story)