Stocks retreat in Asia as China inflation pushes higher

Asian shares have tracked Wall Street's retreat, with Chinese benchmarks leading the decline after the government reported a surge in inflation in October

Asian shares fell Wednesday, tracking Wall Street’s retreat, with Chinese benchmarks leading the decline after the government reported a surge in inflation in October.

China's consumer price index, a main measure of inflation, rose 1.5% in October, up from 0.7% the month before, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. The surge to a 13-month high was driven mainly by a jump in prices for food and fuel, it said.

Producer prices, or wholesale prices, climbed 13.5%, adding to worries that price pressures might limit the central bank's ability to adjust its policies to bolster growth. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1% to 24,575.71, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 0.8% to 3,479.31.

But the latest numbers were exaggerated by low comparative data from last year and underlying price pressures remain low, Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.