Xinhua news agency, Beijing, May 11 - Title: how to ensure supply and stabilize price in the next step from the CPI data in April

Xinhua News Agency reporters Wei Yukun and Shen Cheng

According to the data released by the National Bureau of statistics on the 11th, affected by the domestic epidemic and the continuous rise of international commodity prices, the national consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.1% year-on-year in April. Although the increase was 0.6 percentage points higher than that of the previous month, it was still in a reasonable range.

Among China’s CPI “basket” commodities, food accounted for a relatively high proportion. In April, food prices increased by 1.9% from a year-on-year decrease of 1.5% last month, pushing up the CPI increase of that month.

Specifically, in April, due to the rise of logistics costs during the epidemic and the increase of “hoarding” demand in some places, the prices of fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, eggs and potatoes increased by 24%, 14.1%, 13.3% and 11.8% respectively year-on-year, with an increase over the previous month; With the gradual adjustment of pig production capacity and the orderly collection and storage of the central frozen pork reserve, the year-on-year decline in pork prices narrowed by 8.1 percentage points over the previous month.

Affected by the volatile rise of oil prices in the international market, domestic oil prices rose significantly in April. In the same month, the prices of gasoline, diesel and LPG increased by 29%, 31.7% and 26.9% respectively year-on-year.

However, the core CPI excluding food and energy prices fell steadily. In April, the core CPI rose by 0.9% year-on-year, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous month.

From the perspective of the national producer price index (PPI), despite the high international commodity prices, all regions and departments implemented the decision-making and deployment of ensuring supply and stabilizing prices. In April, the PPI increased by 8% year-on-year, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous month.

The “scissors gap” between CPI and PPI was further narrowed. In 2021, the “scissors difference” between the two was 7.2 percentage points, which fell to 5.9 percentage points in April, which means that the upstream and downstream price trends are more coordinated.

“In April, against the background of high international inflation, the effect of ensuring supply and stabilizing prices of domestic livelihood commodities and bulk commodities continued to appear, and the overall price level continued to operate within a reasonable range.” Guo Liyan, director of the comprehensive situation research office of the Chinese Academy of macroeconomic research, said.

According to expert analysis, affected by the impact of the epidemic, the intensification of international geopolitical conflicts, the gradual upward cycle of pork prices and other factors, domestic prices may face some upward pressure in the future.

Focusing on the key link of stabilizing prices, the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a few days ago called for “doing a good job in ensuring the supply and stabilizing prices of energy and resources, doing a good job in preparing for spring ploughing” and “organizing the supply of important livelihood commodities”.

From May 1 this year to March 31, 2023, the provisional import tax rate of zero shall be implemented for all coal; Accelerate the release of high-quality coal production capacity and clarify the price bid up behavior of operators in the coal field; The central government allocated 20 billion yuan to provide one-time subsidies to farmers who actually grow grain

In response to the new challenges faced by stabilizing prices, China has adhered to comprehensive policies, precise regulation and control, and adopted a series of effective measures to ensure the overall stability of domestic energy and grain prices.

“We should continue to implement the policy of ensuring supply and price stability of bulk commodities, stimulate market potential, promote cost sharing among the government, production enterprises and circulation enterprises, implement the support measures of the central and local governments for downstream small, medium and micro enterprises, and alleviate the transmission pressure of bulk commodity prices.” Xu Guangjian, vice president of China Price Association, said.

At present, the epidemic prevention and control work is in a critical period. It is very important to ensure adequate supply and stable price of commodities for people’s livelihood.

“Special attention should be paid to ensuring the supply of materials in areas with medium and high risk of the epidemic, and make full use of the flow dispatching information of the epidemic prevention and control department to allocate materials across regions or even provinces, so as to avoid abnormal price fluctuations in areas with medium and high risk of the epidemic due to insufficient supply.” Xu Guangjian said that we should further implement the linkage mechanism between social assistance and security standards and rising prices, and alleviate the impact of rising prices on the basic lives of local people in difficulties.

Beijing will prepare at least one month’s reserves for rice flour, grain and oil, and storage and transportation resistant vegetables, and regularly replace storage and transportation resistant vegetables; Guangzhou issues passes for material distribution vehicles to ensure uninterrupted material supply; Some places in Hebei coordinate with major supermarkets to increase the frequency of replenishment and dynamically store vegetables, meat and other livelihood materials

“With the increase in the seasonal listing of fresh agricultural and sideline products, the blocking points of logistics distribution in some epidemic areas are speeding up and have achieved phased results. The foundation for maintaining the stability of the prices of important livelihood commodities will be more solid, and the domestic CPI is expected to continue to operate within a reasonable range.” Guo Liyan said.