Although prices of food, housing and shares are rising, an
official from a think-tank of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on
Wednesday claimed that "China will not face serious inflation."
Zheng Xinli, deputy director of the Policy Research Office of
the CPC Central Committee, told a press conference that price
fluctuations were unavoidable but the forces that had driven up
prices were dissipating.
Zheng said that China would resolve price hikes for certain
goods by increasing supply.
Given the fact that the soaring price of pork, China's staple
meat, has pushed up the consumer price index (CPI), the State
Council worked out a series of policies to boost pork production.
"In the first half of next year, the positive effects of the
policies will emerge," Zheng said.
Commenting on concerns that pork supplies might exceed demand
early next year, Zheng said China was building cold storage
facilities. Once market prices for pork had fallen below cost, the
government would increase pork reserves, so as to ensure a stable
market.
He said government will also build and sell more low- and
mid-priced apartments to control current excessively high housing
prices.
He said efforts would also be made to maintain a stable stock
market, including increasing the number of listed companies and
encouraging state-owned enterprises that had already listed
overseas to also list domestically.
(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2007)
