CHINA, the world's biggest pork and cooking oil consumer, plans to sell food from state reserves before the Lunar New Year holidays next month to help control rising food costs and maintain social stability.
Central and local authorities will act to ensure the needs of low-income earners, students, migrant workers and ethnic minority groups, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its Website yesterday, citing Minister Chen Deming.
Rising food costs pushed China's inflation to an 11-year high of 6.9 percent in November. The government last week restricted food and fuel-price increases to curb speculation, Bloomberg News said.
State officials are "closely watching the supplies and prices of basic living necessities," the ministry said. "Central and local authorities will boost supplies" it said.
Meanwhile, the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, announced yesterday that it will extend a price control policy to fertilizer, a move to protect farmers and ensure the country's food security, Xinhua news agency reported.