Energy subsidies 'unsustainable'

Editor's note: While oil prices in international markets continue to break new records in the first half, China has only raised the prices of gasoline and diesel by as much as 18 percent, in an effort to keep them artificially low. Experts say such a move is largely caused by the concern that higher energy prices would trigger further consumer inflation. Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, talked to China Daily reporter Wang Xu about the effect of the price control measures.

Q: The central government has managed to control energy prices in the first half to curb inflation. What do you think of the effect of such measures?

A: The move makes sense in the short term. The government is using price control to slow down the momentum of inflation, rather than inflation itself. In the first half, the measures proved to be effective as the CPI increase slowed down.