April 1999
Price deflation is one of the big stories and actually one where the statistics are simple enough to be reliable (how much did X cost this month? how much did X cost 12 months ago). When will the prices stop falling? According to the Beijing price index, retail prices in Beijing are about 1.5 percent down from 12 months ago. Some reports on the websites cited below suggested that the rate of deflation eased somewhat during the first quarter.
There is a lot of information about this available on line. Fire up your Chinese language software and check out the
The China Price Information Network statistics, analysis and news. Sample items: the pace of deflation slows during the first quarter; the Ministry of Agriculture implements urgent measures to stabilize pork and egg prices; nationwide investigation of airline ticket pricing; etc. Sections on pharmaceuticals, international market, Searchable database on national (1978 - 98) and local price policy documents (1996 - 1998) covering the past several years. The website is at http://www.cpic.gov.cn/
Full text, online searchable central government monthly publications on prices and price trends: PRC Official Price Journal (full text); full text of central government notices on prices. The May 1st issue has the full text of a State Development Planning Commission notice on cutting telecom rates of March 17, 1998.See http://www.cpic.gov.cn/magazines.htm Most of the online publications seem to be password protected, but the Price Official Journal is open.
Students of the Chinese economy might find some of this very up to date information quite useful.
This just another example of how the Chinese government's efforts to put many more government offices and much more information online is making information about China much easily accessible.
A useful commercial Chinese language website for economic news is http://www.homeway.com