August 10, 2011

Farm produce prices in China extended gains in the week ending August 7, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Tuesday (Aug 9).

The wholesale price of pork kept unchanged with the previous week, while that of mutton, beef and chicken rose 0.4%, 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively. Prices of eight major aquatic products dipped 0.2% on-week.

Meanwhile, average wholesale prices for 18 types of vegetables slipped 2.8% due to increasing supply on the market.

Retail prices of grain and oils fluctuated moderately last week. Flour prices kept flat with the preceding week while rice prices rose 0.4%. Rapeseed oil prices edged down 0.1% but peanut oil and soyoil prices respectively gained 0.3% and 0.1%. Egg prices went up 0.7% over the previous week, with the growth down 0.1 percentage point on-week.

The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that the country's the consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, surged 6.5% in July on-year, a 37-month high since July 2008.The stubbornly high inflation rate has been driven by increasing food costs, which rose by 14.8% in July from a year ago. The price of pork, a staple food in China, soared by nearly 57% in July.