China's Farm Produce Prices Drop Five Weeks in a Row

BEIJING, Jun. 9 --  Farm produce prices in China's 36 large and medium-sized cities have fallen for five consecutive weeks, the Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday.

In the week ending June 6, farm produce prices dropped 0.6 percent in those cities from a week earlier, said a statement posted on the ministry's website.

Vegetable prices dropped sharply last week with the wholesale prices of 18 kinds of vegetables tumbling 7 percent from a week earlier, the statement said.

Food prices account for 34 percent of the weighting in China's consumer price index (CPI), a major gauge of inflation

China is yet to report its CPI figure for May, but analysts expect the figure to exceed the 3-percent government target partly because of a low comparison base last year.

China's CPI accelerated to 2.8 percent in April, up 0.4 percentage points from March.

The producer price index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, increased 6.8 percent in April from a year earlier. The government is due to release major economic data for May this week, including the CPI, PPI and retail sales.