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China CPI Rises 5.9% in 2008
[2009-01-26 15:06:24]
China's consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 5.9 percent last year after price pressures began to ease in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said here Thursday.
The CPI was 1.1 percentage points higher than the level in 2007,which was also the official target for 2008.
Prices rose 6.3 percent during the January-November period.
The CPI for December was up just 1.2 percent, the eighth consecutive month of deceleration and the slowest rise since July 2006, NBS director Ma Jiantang told a press conference.
The CPI was 2.4 percent in November, and it hit a 12-year-high of 8.7 percent in February.
China set an initial CPI target for 2009 at 4 percent at the Central Economic Conference in December.
China started out in 2008 with inflation concerns as food and commodity prices spiked, but it ended the year with an unexpected deflation risk.
Initially, China took steps, including monetary tightening, to fight inflation. Price pressures eased significantly in May before deflation risks rose late in the year, when the global recession crushed the prices of many food and commodity items.
China faces deflationary pressure but not for long, economist Wang Xiaoguang told Xinhua.
Deflation "isn't a problem, but a good thing this year. Price declines can spur demand," he said.
"But the government should control investment in such sectors as steel. which have excess capacity. Reckless increases in investment aimed at averting deflation could cause big problems.
"The effective control of price hikes not only helps raise living standards, but more importantly, gives us room for macro-economic controls," Ma noted.(Xinhua)
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