China hopes 2008 inflation at 4.8 pct
BEIJING China’s government hopes to hold inflation to 4.8 percent this year but could have trouble doing so after January snowstorms worsened food shortages, a planning official said.Storms that wrecked crops and disrupted food shipments might keep inflation high in February, said Zhou Wenjun, an official of the cabinet’s National Development and Reform Commission, quoted Friday on the Web site of state television.Economists have raised 2008 inflation forecasts for China as high as 6.8 percent following the storms.Inflation accelerated in January to an 11-year high of 7.1 percent, driven by an 18.2 percent rise in food costs. Analysts say prices could rise even faster in February but they say inflation should ease later in the year.The 4.8 percent target “was decided by the central economic work meeting” held in December, Zhou said.”This target certainly is extremely difficult,” he said.China’s inflation rate for 2007 was also 4.8 percent, well above the official target of 3 percent.The surge in inflation over the past six months has been blamed on shortages of pork, grain and some other food items.
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