The Chinese government is confident that price increases will be kept under control this year due to timely initiatives to rein in price growth and limit money supply, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao wrote in an editorial to the Financial Times on Thursday. “There is concern as to whether China can rein in inflation and sustain its rapid development. My answer is an emphatic yes,” Wen wrote. Price caps have been effective in fighting rapid price rises, Wen said, while increases in required reserve ratios and benchmark deposit and lending rates have helped return growth in money and credit supply to normal. “The overall price level is within a controllable range and is expected to drop steadily,” he wrote. The premier’s comments came just one day after the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning agency, announced on its website that the overall level of prices remains high and that inflation will remain elevated for some months, although it also claimed that the overall situation is controllable. Wen will begin a visit to Europe this week.
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