Measures to contain inflation

The National Development and reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planning body, has urged local authorities to watch out for the effects of inflation.

Bi Jingquan, deputy minister of NDRC at a national meeting on the price supervision held Friday in this capital of south China's Guangdong Province, said, 'When the price of a certain product increases sharply, measures should be made immediately to curb its spreading effects. The rising margin of the price should be strictly controlled, when it surpasses the increasing range of its cost.'

He said that the combination of price rises on the global market and the exorbitant money supply on the domestic market will make it difficult to totally contain inflation next year.

Yao Jingyuan, chief economist of the National Bureau of Statistics and seen here, said the consumer price index, a major gauge of inflation, is likely to climb 4.7% in 2007.

Bi Jingquan said price supervision by market regulatory authorities will be one major way of stabilizing market prices.

He warned local price regulatory authorities to watch out for situation which might encourage inflation such as the Spring Festival (China's Lunar New Year, which will start on Feb. 6, 2008), the Olympic Games in August and the National Day holiday in October.

He asked local authorities to check irregular price hikes suggested in public complaints.