A shenzhen economist yesterday warned about looming inflation as the prices of consumer goods in the city saw a record-high jump in the first four months of this year.

Shenzhen's consumer price index (CPI) in the first four months of the year rose 2.7 percent over the same period last year, the biggest jump in recent years, figures published by the municipal statistics bureau Sunday showed.

"According to the experience of Japan, the trade surplus and account surplus will cause excessive liquidity in the economy, which in turn will result in price hikes in the property market, stock market and then the consumer goods," said Qu Jian, director of the Shenzhen Economic Research Center of China Development Institute.

Qu expects the CPI will continue to rise until the central bank takes stronger measures to mop up liquidity.

Le Zheng, president of the Shenzhen Academy of Social Sciences, urged the municipal government to closely monitor the prices of consumer goods. "It is a strong market signal that is worth close attention," he said.

"The rise of consumer goods prices may not be a bad thing, because a growing domestic consumer market is good for the macroeconomy. But it does affect the livelihood of the ordinary people, and so the government should keep a close eye on it," said Le.

The biggest price hike is in food, which rose 5.4 percent. Qu said the rise in food prices was also related to the poor harvest worldwide this year. "As a result, the prices of related farm produce all rose," said Qu.

Andy Zhang, a white-collar employee in Shenzhen, said he did not feel the impact of the rise in food prices. "But my landlord increased the rent by 10 percent this year," said Zhang.

Nationally, the CPI rose 2.7 percent in the first four months over the same period last year, and 3 percent in April, statistics from the National Statistics Bureau show.

Editor: Yan