Dylan Sun asked: Inflationary pressure continues to build with the consumer price index - a key gauge of inflation - surging 6.5 percent in August, the highest since December 1996. The upward spiral, driven mostly by an 18.2 percent surge in food prices, followed the indicator's rise to a 10-year high of 5.6 percent in July, from 2.2 percent in January. The stock market tumbled 4.5 percent on Tuesday as investors panicked at the news, fearing more tightening measures. Prices of pork and other meat surged 49 percent; cooking oil, 34 percent; and eggs, 23.6 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. Prices of non-food products rose 0.9 percent, the bureau said.Inflation for the first eight months reached 3.9 percent, and economists and government organizations forecast that the CPI for the whole year [+]