China's Farm Produce, Producer Goods Prices Fall

BEIJING, Jun. 18 -- Prices of farm produce and producer goods in China's 36 large and medium-sized cities have dropped for six weeks in a row, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday, indicating easing inflationary pressure this month.

In the week ended June 13, farm produce prices dropped 0.4 percent in those cities from a week earlier while producer goods prices slide 0.9 percent, said a statement posted on the ministry's website.

Vegetable prices continued to fall last week with the wholesale prices of 18 kinds of vegetables tumbling 5 percent from a week earlier, the statement said.

Food prices account for about one third of the weighting in China's consumer price index (CPI), a major gauge of inflation, and the falling farm produce prices will eases some inflationary pressure for the government.

China's CPI accelerated to a 19-month high at 3.1 percent year-on-year in May, exceeding the 3-percent government target for the year.

The falling producer goods prices indicates that the producer price index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, may drop in the months to come.

China's PPI rose 7.1 percent year-on-year in May, up 0.3 percentage points from April's 6.8 percent.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's central economic planner, projected last week that the CPI in June would drop from May but still go up mildly year on year due to the low comparing basis last year.

The NDRC expected the CPI to grow 2.6 percent in the first half of 2010 over one year ago.