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China’s central government has sent inspection teams to 22 provinces in a nationwide survey of efforts to ensure adequate market supply and stabilize prices of household commodities.
"The move aims to ensure the central government’s policy will be carried out to the letter by discovering and solving grassroots problems," the State Council, or the cabinet, said in a statement.
The survey would focus on the measures local authorities have taken to boost the production of grain, pork, milk and cooking oil and price fluctuations of these key commodities, it said.
The teams would also see how these provinces prevented the living standards of needy groups such as low-income families from falling despite rising inflation.
Rising food prices, especially pork, China’s staple meat, pushed the inflation rate to an 11-year high of 6.9 percent last November.
Pork production fell dramatically last summer on breeders’ dampened enthusiasm due to rising feed costs and a massive pig cull after the outbreak of blue-ear disease in some regions.
To ensure adequate supply, the government vowed to double the subsidy for pig breeders this year and told major refiners to increase oil output and exploration.
The government ordered prices of oil, gas and electricity should not be raised "in the near future", amid increased efforts to ease the financial burdens of common people ahead of the Spring Festival. It also launched pricing intervention into commodities, such as grain, meat and eggs.
Commerce Minister Chen Demning said on Sunday that his ministry would also adjust its trade policy to increase supply and continue to crack down on profiteering, hoarding and other activities that disrupted the market order.
Source:
Xinhua
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