Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 12th Title: Prices Keep Running Smooth —— Perspective of CPI and PPI data in 2022.
Xinhua News Agency reporters Wei Yukun, Pan Jie and Shui Jinchen
Since 2022, under the background of high global inflation, China’s prices have maintained a stable operation. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on the 12th, the national consumer price index (CPI) rose by 2% last year, which was lower than the expected target of around 3% for the whole year. Looking forward to 2023, China’s prices are expected to remain generally stable, and there is a solid foundation for ensuring stable supply and prices.
CPI keeps running in a reasonable range.
Wan Jinsong, director of the Price Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that last year, the monthly increase of China’s CPI was always below 3%, and it rose by 2% for the whole year, which was significantly lower than that of developed economies such as the United States, the euro zone and the United Kingdom, which were around 8%, 8% and 9% respectively, and also significantly lower than that of emerging economies such as India, Brazil and South Africa (from January to November).
Keeping prices running smoothly is very important to stabilize the basic economy. Since last year, China’s price stability has faced multiple challenges-
Externally, affected by the Ukrainian crisis and other factors, international energy and food prices have risen sharply, global inflationary pressures have risen, and imported inflationary pressures have increased; Looking inward, since March, the domestic epidemic has rebounded, which has brought some pressure on ensuring supply and stabilizing prices.
All relevant departments in various regions have resolutely implemented the decision-making arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, made efforts to strengthen the construction of the system of production, supply, storage and marketing of grain and energy, and made efforts to strengthen the price control of important livelihood commodities and bulk commodities. China’s overall price level has continued to run smoothly and become an important "stabilizer" for global prices.
During the epidemic period, many places in the country increased the organization of goods supply, strengthened the monitoring and early warning of the daily necessities market, and unblocked the "last meter" distribution channel to ensure that the quantity of grain, oil, meat, eggs, milk, fruits and vegetables was stable.
Chongqing strives to solve the problem that residents can’t go out to buy food through e-commerce platform, group purchase and purchasing. Shenyang City, Liaoning Province organized three major fruit and vegetable wholesale markets, large supermarket chains and fresh chain enterprises to carry out production and marketing docking, and supplemented the supply of meat and vegetables through multiple channels; Beijing guides all e-commerce platform enterprises to prepare goods and ensure that the distribution sites have sufficient inventory …
Niu Yubin, deputy director of the Price Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the food price index in the CPI rose by 2.8% in 2022, which was significantly lower than the increase of about 10% in major economies such as the United States and Europe. The comparison of food price increase at home and abroad is more obvious. The monthly increase of international wheat and corn prices is as high as 74% and 36% year-on-year, while the price trend of wheat and corn in China is relatively flat, and the retail price of finished grain is more stable. The retail price of rice in 36 large and medium-sized cities decreased by 1% and the retail price of flour increased by 3% year-on-year.
PPI year-on-year growth rate dropped
In 2022, the national producer price index (PPI) rose by 4.1% over the previous year, which was lower than the 8.1% increase in 2021. Among them, due to the decline in prices of petroleum and related industries, the PPI in December 2022 changed from 0.1% in November to 0.5% in November; Affected by the lower comparison base in the same period in 2021, the PPI decreased by 0.7% year-on-year, which was 0.6 percentage points narrower than that in November.
Since the beginning of last year, in view of the obvious increase in commodity prices, the relevant state departments have taken timely measures such as two-way regulation of supply and demand and joint supervision of the spot market to curb unreasonable price increases and promote the orderly decline of PPI growth.
From May 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, a provisional import tax rate of zero will be imposed on all coal; Establish coal price monitoring and cost investigation system, and carry out behavior evaluation and compliance review of coal price index; Intensify oil and gas exploration and development …
Faced with the intensification of fluctuations in the international energy market, based on the basic national conditions of coal, China has released high-quality coal production capacity in an orderly manner, accelerated the construction of large-scale wind power photovoltaic bases, and formed a "firewall" to effectively resist the sharp fluctuations in international energy prices.
Thanks to a series of measures to ensure supply and stabilize prices, commodity prices generally fell. In December 2022, the price of ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry decreased by 14.7%, nonferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry decreased by 3.6%, and coal mining and washing industry decreased by 2.7%.
Prices are expected to remain generally stable.
Fu Linghui, spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that although the increase in global commodity prices has declined recently, it is still at a high level on the whole, and the import impact on domestic prices still exists. The domestic economy is gradually recovering, the market demand is expanding, and with the approach of the Spring Festival, the prices of pork, fresh vegetables and fresh fruits may rise seasonally, which will increase the pressure of price increase to a certain extent.
In 2022, the Central Economic Work Conference emphasized in the deployment of economic work in 2023 that "the work of stabilizing growth, stabilizing employment and stabilizing prices should be highlighted". A few days ago, the the State Council executive meeting made clear six measures to further strengthen the supply and price stability of important livelihood commodities, medical materials and energy, to ensure adequate market supply and stable prices during the Spring Festival, and to ensure people’s medical needs and warm winter.
Wan Jinsong said that looking forward to 2023, China’s prices will maintain a stable operation with a solid foundation. There has been a continuous bumper harvest of grain production, reasonable and abundant pig production capacity, sufficient supply of important commodities for people’s livelihood, strong basic energy security, further improvement of the system of ensuring supply and stabilizing prices, and full confidence and ability to continue to maintain overall price stability.
Early in the morning, the biggest wholesale market of agricultural products in Anhui, the Baida Zhougudui Agricultural Products International Logistics Park, became busy gradually, and there were an endless stream of vehicles trading fruits and vegetables from all over the country.
"Considering the gradual arrival of the sales peak before the Spring Festival and the possible rain and snow cooling weather in the later period, the logistics park has formulated relevant plans to organize market operators to expand the supply of goods in a timely manner and actively and steadily guarantee the supply." Wang Ping, Assistant Director of Logistics Park Information Center, said.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued a notice to deploy the work of vegetable disaster prevention and reduction, stable production and supply; Hezhou City, Guangxi, guides large supermarkets, especially key key enterprises to take precautions and increase procurement and inventory; Gansu launched the action of resuming commerce and trade circulation, and fully supported the market players to resume work and production … Recently, all relevant departments and localities have implemented the central deployment, made overall plans to ensure stable supply and prices, and kept the "rice bag" and "vegetable basket" of the people firmly.
"From the recent dispatching situation, the supply of important livelihood commodities in various places is sufficient, the reserves are substantial, and the market prices are stable and orderly, which can guarantee the consumer demand of urban and rural residents during the holiday season." Niu Yubin said.