Sharp rise in prices unlikely, says NBS

With time-limited fiscal and monetary policies phasing out gradually and no flood-like policy stimulus, China does not have the base for sharp rise in prices, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.

Fu Linghui, spokesperson of NBS, said at a news conference that a more notable expansion of year-on-year producer price index in April can be attributed to the low base for the same period last year, a steady recovery of domestic demand and a rising global commodity prices. Among them the low-base factor last year is the main reason. Shorter supply and constrained global transportation capacity, a global economic recovery and sufficient liquidity globally combined have caused global commodity price soaring.

The year-on-year growth rate of PPI, or price at factory gate, has seen faster expansion mainly because of last year’s low base factor, he said.

He said that impact of the low-base factor is tapering off. Consumer price index, or CPI, has the condition to remain full-year stable. With pork prices going down and grain food remaining stable, food prices are likely to remain stable. On the transitory impact from PPI to CPI, as China has large number of industries that cover extensive fields, such impact is weakening from upstream to downstream.