The World Bank says inflation in China is mainly a result of higher international food prices. In its China Quarterly Update released on Wednesday in Beijing, the bank said it expects the inflation rate in China to gradually ease by the end of this year.
Consumer price inflation in China has been increasing for months. Official figures released on Tuesday show the inflation rate in August hit a decade-high to reach 6.5 percent.
World Bank
economists say such price hikes have mainly been driven by higher international food prices, which are expected to increase further. But with industrial commodities and
producer price rises continuing to moderate, the inflation could ease by later this year.
Louis Kuijs, Senior Economist of The World Bank says "Other international
commodity price away from food, mainly industrial product prices, such as steel, iron and ore mitigating factors."
The World Bank says the recent international financial market
turmoil, triggered by the subprime debt
crisis in the US, could affect China's economy. But it says China is well-placed to absorb the
impact.
Louis says "China is well placed to deal with that
impact because at the moment in China, the main concerns of authorities are that the growth is on high side, inflation is on high side, trade
surpluses high side. So a slowdown in the world economy that is not too
drastic and not too severe will actually help mitigate those concerns in China."
The World Bank believes China's macro-economic prospects remain good. It predicts the country's gross domestic product will grow by 11.3 percent in 2007.
But the bank warns
external imbalance remains China's key economic issue. And the country's main challenge is to contain the rising trade
surplus. The World Bank suggested a stronger real exchange rate as an effective
policy tool to achieve that goal.
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