LONDON, (Reuters) – In view of the high Chinese inflation numbers, which we suspect are even higher than the official data suggests, we believe a rate rise will come through sooner rather than later, and that this will ultimately trigger a correction in a number of already overheated commodity markets,” said Edward Meir, senior commodity correspondent at brokers MF Global.

China’s headline inflation rose to a 28-month high of 5.1 percent in the year to November, from 4.4 percent in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Saturday.

But China’s monetary policy tightening should be gradual because consumer inflation is unlikely to exceed 5 percent in 2011, an academic adviser to the central bank said in remarks published on Monday.

China’s implied oil demand in November rose 13.7 percent from a year earlier to a record of nearly 9.3 million barrels per day, Reuters calculations based on preliminary official data showed on Monday.