The Beijing Organizing Committee of the 29th Olympic Games (BOCOG) Wednesday vowed to maintain the licensed Olympic product prices at present level despite the country's consumer price index (CPI) in January hitting a record high in 11 years.

Yuan Bin, director of BOCOG's Marketing Department, told reporters that they have taken measures to cut product costs in a bid to keep them at accessible prices to the general public.

"Our principle is to develop products that are affordable for the general public, so we paid a lot of attention to the prices," said Yuan.

"One of our measures was to cut franchise fee rate from 10 percent to 8 percent last year. Because franchisers made their contribution through franchise fee, lower fees will help to shave off cost to some extent," she said.

"And we also consider other measures such as more environment-friendly and cheaper packaging," she added.

The BOCOG reduced prices of some 2,000 types of products early last year as there are about 6,000 types available on the market.

China's consumer price index (CPI) rose 7.1 percent year-on-year in January and the CPI rose 4.8 percent in 2007, both the fastest paces in more than 11 years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

(Xinhua News Agency February 21, 2008)