Statistics

China's farm produce prices slightly down last week: MOC

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-16 10:49

BEIJING - In the week ending February 13, farm produce prices in China declined slightly for the first time this year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said in a report released on Tuesday.

As the week-long Spring Festival holiday ended, abundant supply and weakening demand had brought down vegetable prices last week, said the ministry.

Compared to a week ago, the wholesale prices of 18 staple vegetables and 8 aquatic products went down 4.3 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively, it said.

The prices of cucumbers, eggplants, and tomatoes all dropped by more than 10 percent last week. Prices of meat and eggs were still rising, but at a slower pace compared with a week ago. The prices of pork and eggs were up 0.8 percent and 0.4 percent week on week.

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Peanut oil price was stable from one week ago, while the prices of soybean oil and rapeseed oil were 0.2 percent higher.

China's statistics bureau announced on Tuesday that it had reduced the weight of food prices in the calculation of China's consumer price index (CPI), the major gauge of inflation, by 2.21 percentage points.

Before the adjustment, food prices accounted for one-third of the basket of goods in China's CPI calculation.

Calculated with the new weighting, China's CPI jumped 4.9 percent year-on-year in January this year due to surging food prices, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Prices of producer goods continued to rise last week, including rubber and steel products, according to the MOC report. Also, chemical product prices remained stable from last week.

The country's producer price index (PPI), the main gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 6.6 percent in January year-on-year.