每日时讯英文阅读：World Bank warns of inflationary pressures

The World Bank sharply increased its forecast for inflation in China this year owing to the potential spillover into prices from higher wages and raw material costs, although it said that headline inflation had already peaked.

In its quarterly assessment of the Chinese economy, which raised the full-year forecast for inflation to 7 per cent from 4.8 per cent, the World Bank said that the economy remained robust and recommended further tightening of monetary conditions.

The recent large increases in capital inflows should encourage the government to debate a one-off appreciation in the exchange rate, the bank said, although it stopped short of recommending a significant change in foreign exchange policy.

The World Bank said that “the worst of the food price hikes” in China was over and that headline inflation would recede, but it added that the economy was facing a second wave of inflationary pressures from rising costs of industrial commodities. “So inflation is expected to come down only gradually,” said the report. Consumer price inflation in May was 7.7 per cent, down from 8.5 per cent the month before.