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China lifts temporary price caps on fuel, food

By Zheng Lifei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-01-01 11:37

China today removed temporary price controls on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), power-station coal and some staple foods such as grains and cooking oil as inflation cooled, the country's top economic planning body announced.

Related readings:  China's CPI may ease to 1.2% in Dec  China's Nov CPI drops to 22-month low

"The temporary price controls on LPG and other major goods and services will be scrapped starting January 1, 2009," National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement on its website yesterday.

The move, experts say, is intended to stem a spiral of falling prices, profits and consumption in the world's forth-largest economy.

The temporary price controls on certain food and LPG were imposed in January 2008 to contain inflation, which shot up to 12-year-high of 8.7 percent in February but was since cooled to 2.4 percent in November, the weakest pace in almost two years.

NDRC ordered a cap on prices of thermal coal in June to help power producers cope with rising costs.