Christmas Shock: Here Comes Toy Price Inflation

A Western buyer at the Canton trade fair protested against higher prices by wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “Too Expensive” in Chinese. That generated little sympathy from toy seller Clara Zhang, reports Bloomberg news..

“We all laughed so hard,” said Zhang, 26, sales manager for Nanjing Happy Toy Co., maker of teddy bears and stuffed ducks. “Then we said, ‘Sorry, sir, you probably need to pay even more.’”

Hundreds of toymakers at the China Import and Export Fair, the country’s largest, are charging more, says Bloomberg.

"Definitely, prices are going up on everything,” Chief Executive Officer of Li & Fung Ltd., the world’s biggest supplier of toys to retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) and Target Corp, Bruce Rockowitz said in a May 19 interview. “Every type of product.”

Of course, there is Paul Krugman's opposing view:

....there’s nothing....to suggest any reason to consider inflation a problem.