Edible oil auction to help ease holiday price hikes

A total of 200,000 tons of edible oil reserves will be auctioned to curb price hikes during the week-long National Day holidays, officials have announced.

The move is the latest effort by food and price watchdogs to rein in inflation, which is largely driven by soaring grain, pork and edible oil prices.

The consumer price index, a key gauge of inflation, hit 6.5 percent last month, the highest in a decade. Edible oil prices rose about 30 percent.