China's pork prices flat last week

China Daily, August 11, 2011

China's pork prices remain unchanged?over the past week.

China's pork prices were unmoved week-on-week for the week ending Aug 7 after declining for two straight weeks, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Wednesday.

High pork prices have become a huge concern for the country, as the consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, rose to a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July. Pork prices soared by nearly 57 percent during the period, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Meanwhile, wholesale prices of 18 staple vegetables continued to drop, down 2.8 percent last week from the previous week due to sufficient supplies. But the MOC has forecasted that declines will be smaller in the future due to the effects of tropical storm Muifa, which affected the country's eastern coastal areas last week and disrupted local production and transportation.

The wholesale prices of eight types of aquatic products fell 0.2 percent week-on-week, while prices of rice and peanut oil rose 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent from the previous week. Egg prices also climbed, up 0.7 percent.

However, the wholesale prices of minerals, steel and rubber, all rose while those of nonferrous metals registered mild drops.