The coronavirus outbreak—now officially called COVID19, according to the World Health Organization—has driven many things in China down. With close to than 43,000 in the country infected and more than a thousand dead, factory output, consumer spending, tourism, and commodity prices have seen major drops.
One thing that is soaring? Inflation. China’s overall consumer price index (CPI), which had been at 1.5% in January 2017 and between 2% and 3% during most of 2019, leaped to 5.4% in January 2020.