Chinese farm produce prices see wide drops last week

Updated: 2012-03-07 11:28

(Xinhua)

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BEIJING - China's farm produce prices mostly dropped for the week ending March 4 from the previous week, according to a report released Tuesday by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

The report said that the retail price of eggs dropped 1.1 percent last week, however, the rate of price decline narrowed by 0.4 percentage point compared to that of the previous week.

Prices of meat and staple foods also generally saw declines, with the price of pork down 1.7 percent, marking the fifth consecutive week of decline. Prices of mutton, beef, and chicken were down 0.9 percent, 0.6 percent, and 0.2 percent, respectively.

The price of rice remained unchanged from the previous week, while that of flour dropped 0.2 percent, according to the report.

However, due to impact of low temperatures and rainy weather in some regions, the average wholesale price of 18 kinds of major vegetables rose 2.4 percent last week, with Chinese cabbage seeing the sharpest price rise of 10.7 percent, the report said.

Eight kinds of sea products also saw an average price gain of 1.4 percent, according to the report.

The country's statistical authority is scheduled to issue data for February's Consumer Price Index (CPI) Friday. A recent report from the Bank of Communication forecast that China's February CPI growth would slow to 3.2 percent, and for the whole year, consumer prices would rise by 2.7 to 3.3 percent from the 2011 level.

In January, the country's CPI grew 4.5 percent. According to a government work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao at the annual parliamentary session on Monday, China aims to hold this year's consumer price growth at around 4 percent.