Consumer prices rose by .8% last month, more than double analysts expectations. Of course, with artificially low interest rates one can’t really expect anything different; but it does make it damn clear that the Federal Reserve has nowhere to go but up with interest rates.

China's inflation rate has continued to accelerate, with the consumer price index (CPI) up 8.7 percent year-on-year in February, the biggest jump in nearly 12 years, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday.

The Chinese government will increase subsidies to low-income urban and rural families amid rising prices, said Wang Zhikun, an official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA), on Tuesday.

This week's big political and economic focus will be inflation and whether official data out on Wednesday will trigger an interest rate rise in the middle of the election campaign. All eyes will be on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the September quarter.

China is experiencing its highest consumer prices in more than a decade. Escalating food costs are hitting the country's poor majority the hardest. China's National Bureau of Statistics says consumer prices jumped 6.5 percent in August from the same period last year.