NBS: China can avoid severe inflation
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-06-16 08:58

China's current market price is still under control and the country is capable of avoiding severe economic inflation, a report on current Chinese price indices issued by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in Beijing Tuesday.

However, the NBS warned in the report that a sober mind is still needed to realize that some fundamental problems of the Chinese economy is yet to be solved, and the prevention of market price hike still remains a priority task for the country.

Some positive signs started to show with the series of macroeconomic policies taking effect, the NBS said, adding that the growth momentum of market price ebbed in May.

The NBS figures show that the growth rate of coal output in May was 3.3 percentage points slower than in the previous month, while the growth of steel lost 9.4 percentage points and cars shed 12.1 percentage points.

The NBS also pointed out that the rise of the Chinese market price triggered from the latter half of last year was only a sign of recovery and based on a low level in recent years.

The grain price, for example, the NBS report said, is still in a recovery growing process, noting the fact that the current highest point of grain price only equals to that of 1996.

The hike of the Chinese market price should be attributed to three reasons, one is the partial supply bottleneck that the Chinese economy encounters, the second is price fluctuation in international markets, and the third is the consecutive impact of a price surge last year, the NBS explained.