China suspends oil price adjustment

BEIJING -- China's top economic planner will not adjust domestic retail oil prices as global prices have stayed below the official pricing mechanism, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

Under the current mechanism, prices of refined oil products are adjusted when crude prices translate into a change of more than 50 yuan (about $7.3) per tonne for gasoline and diesel over a period of 10 working days.

The limit aims to buffer the negative effects of price swings, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement.

The NDRC is closely watching the current pricing mechanism and will continue to improve it based on market changes, according to the NDRC.

China has cut retail oil prices once and raised retail oil prices twice so far this year.