Official figures show that China's inflation rate reached an 11-year high in February.

The consumer price index increased to 8.7 per cent in the month, up from 7.1 per cent in January.

The higher than expected reading comes as China's economy grows at about 11.4 per cent a year.

A senior international economist at Westpac Bank, Huw McKay, says the jump in inflation is a result of shortages in supply, and that could be good news for Australian exporters.

"There were some pretty brutal snow storms hitting large patches of China which usually are below the snowline at this time of year," he said.

"[It] has hit crops very badly, it's hurt the transport infrastructure, so it's been very difficult to get food from other parts of the country to bail people out.

"Because China is such a dominant player in many commodity markets, when their supply situation is so constrained, that will push up the prices of a broad range of commodities in internationally-traded markets.

"That's something that will help Australian exporters."