June's producer prices up 6.4%
By Da Shan (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-07-16 08:46

China's producer prices rose 6.4 per cent in June compared with the same month last year, according to the Shanghai Securities News.

Producer prices, measured at the factory gate, were up 4.7 per cent for the first six months compared to a year ago.

The newspaper said June's higher producer prices were mainly due to a hike in purchasing prices of raw materials and fuel, which rose a year-on-year 11.8 per cent.

Qi Jingmei, a senior economist with the State Information Centre, said producer prices reflect future trends of consumer prices, the policymakers' key inflation gauge.

"Higher producer prices will more or less translate into higher consumer prices," she said.

China's consumer price index (CPI) rose a year-on-year 4.4 per cent in May and 3.8 per cent in April.

Chief economist Yao Jingyuan of the National Bureau of Statistics said CPI rose around 5 per cent in June compared with the same month a year ago.

China has taken a raft of measures since the second half of last year to try to cool down the economy, including raising bank reserve requirements three times and curbing unwanted fixed asset investment projects.

These macrocontrol measures have achieved initial results, said the information centre's another economist Zhang Xueying.

Price rises in some sectors, such as steel and non-ferrous metals, where there has been overheating investment, have been controlled to some extent.

Growth in industrial output and money supply has also slowed down.

China's industrial output rose 16.2 per cent in June compared with the same month last year. The growth rate was 1.3 percentage points lower than the previous month.

Broad money supply or the M2 rose a year-on-year 16.2 per cent in June, according to the central People's Bank of China. The growth rate was 4.7 percentage points lower than a year earlier, and 1.3 percentage points down from the previous month.

Outstanding renminbi loans were up 16.3 per cent in June. The growth rate was 6.8 percentage points slower than a year earlier and 2.3 percentage points down from the end of May.

The slowdown in major economic indicators has prompted worries about the possibility of an abrupt economic slowdown.

The government wants to bring economic growth down from the current levels where many resources such as oil have been constrained, but needs it to be above 7 per cent to generate sufficient employment.

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