UN Unilever NV

Spreading reports of price hikes for some daily necessities such as instant noodles, soap and shampoo have sprung up in newspapers across China, exacerbating inflation concerns in the country, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday.

Soap, shampoo and body lotion were sold out in several supermarkets in Shanghai and Nanjing in east China, after domestic media reported earlier this month that four leading daily consumer product manufacturers--Unilever PLC (UL, ULVR.LN), Liby Group Co., Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) and Nice Group--will raise their prices by 5%-15% starting next month, Xinhua said.

The four companies represent four-fifths of China's consumer product market, according to the report.

Meanwhile, Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp. (0322.HK), one of the largest food and beverage producers in China, has also announced plans to raise prices for its instant noodles next month by CNY0.5 per bowl, the third such price hike since November, according to Xinhua.

All of the companies said their price increases were due to higher costs of raw materials, such as flour and petroleum, the report said.

China's consumer price index rose 4.9% in February from a year earlier, unchanged from January's 4.9% and higher than the government's annual target of 4%.

-Liu Li contributed to this article, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610-8400-7713; li.liu@dowjones.com

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