www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

News >Bizchina

No CPI sigh of relief

2011-02-16 14:10

The lower-than-expected rise in the consumer price index (CPI) is no cause for optimism. Chinese policymakers should continue their efforts to fight inflation.

To the surprise of most economists who believed that inflation might climb to a new high, consumer prices, despite rising 0.3 percentage points in January compared with December, stayed 0.2 percentage points lower than the 28-month high of November. Though they were still 4.9 percent higher than the same month a year ago.

Some economists suspect that the move by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to give diminished weight to food prices might have helped keep the rise lower than the market's expectations of more than 5 percent.

Food used to account for a third of the basket of goods that made up China's CPI, but the NBS announced on Tuesday it had reduced the weighting of food prices by 2.21 percentage points and increased that of living costs by 4.22 percentage points. While such an adjustment in calculating consumer price inflation is long overdue, to better reflect the evolution in Chinese consumption patterns, there were some concerns that the adjustment had distorted the figure.

After more than three decades of nearly double-digit economic growth, it is fully reasonable to give big-ticket items like housing a much larger share of the CPI basket now Chinese households spend a relatively smaller portion of their incomes on basic needs like food.

However, public suspicion of such an adjustment in inflation figures is also understandable. With food prices surging 10.3 percent year-on-year, significantly faster than the 2.6-percent increase in prices for non-food items, it is hard to conclude that a reduced weighting of foods will not affect the overall inflation level.

The NBS was quick to deny that such an important adjustment in the composition of the CPI basket has distorted the result. It said that the adjustment added 0.024 percentage points to January's CPI figure, denying media reports of a 0.3 percentage points drag down.

The statistics agency may be right. But the complexity of the new way of calculating the CPI and the sensitiveness of inflation figures all demand a more clear and convincing explanation to ease public suspicions. Yet, far more importantly, Chinese policymakers should be aware that the lower-than-expected CPI might be just a false dawn.

Adding to a squeeze on food supplies, China's wheat-growing northeast is in the grip of a prolonged drought that threatens its crop. Globally, climbing international commodity prices have already sent China's producer price index, a main gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, up 6.6 percent in the year to January, suggesting that price pressures will remain uncomfortably strong during the coming months.

With the peak of inflation still out of sight, Chinese policymakers should stick to their course of monetary tightening to fight inflation head on.

Related News:

主站蜘蛛池模板: 国产人做人爱免费视频 | 亚洲国产午夜看片 | 欧美老熟妇bbbb毛片 | 久久亚洲精品中文字幕 | 国产精品欧美亚洲日本综合 | 国产成人综合网在线观看 | 亚洲综合美女 | 国产成人精品免费视频 | 欧洲欧美成人免费大片 | 老司机亚洲精品影院在线 | 国产免费福利体检区久久 | 日本在线观看不卡 | 欧美成人艳星在线播放 | 国产精品久久久久久久免费 | 欧美国产大片 | www.黄.com| 日韩在线视频线视频免费网站 | 一区二区三区视频网站 | 亚洲综合网在线观看首页 | 91精品国产综合久久青草 | 午夜影院黄 | xxx欧美老熟 | 欧美成人tv在线观看免费 | 99re免费99re在线视频手机版 | 欧美在线视频免费观看 | 久久久久18 | 国产一区二区三区在线观看视频 | 国产日韩欧美一区二区三区在线 | 中国一级特黄视频 | 久久综合本色宗合一本色 | 久草福利资源在线观看 | 亚洲一级片免费看 | 久久午夜影院 | 欧美三级超在线视频 | 三级黄色毛片视频 | 欧美精品区 | 亚洲免费网址 | 亚洲精品在线免费观看视频 | 亚洲欧美国产18 | 亚洲国产精品aaa一区 | 香港全黄一级毛片在线播放 |