Chinanews, Beijing, Sept. 18 - At a press conference held on July 18, Zhang Jingping, spokesman at the State Statistics Bureau, said that commodity price for the first half of the year had climbed “moderately”. To the public, however, they have the impression that during the first half of the year, many things became more expensive than before.
Due to high oil prices, taxi fees in Beijing were raised from 1.6 yuan per kilometer to 2 yuan per kilometer starting from May 20. Later, taxi fees in Shanghai, Shenyang and Dalian were also raised.
On June 28, the State Development and Reform Commission issued a document saying that from then on, electricity fees consumed by enterprises would be increased by 2.494 cents nationwide. In addition, electricity fees charged on residents in Shanghai, Jiangxi, and Chongqing would also be higher.
On August 22, Vice Minister of Construction Chou Baoxing disclosed that starting from the end of this year, China would begin to charge sewage treatment fees in all cities and towns across the country. Theoretically, residents should pay 0.8 yuan for every ton of sewage they dispose of. While making the announcement, Chou stressed that this would be a long process and the fees could not reach the expected point with one policy alone. His words clearly sent out a message that in future, such fees would be set at an even higher rate.
Days ago, the Xinhua News Agency reported that the price of land for industrial use would be raised by 40-60%. Although in theory, the new policy would not affect the real estate market, experts pointed out that in reality, it would boost the housing price in the property market.
Meanwhile, prices for vegetables, eggs and meat, which are essential to the public’s everyday meals, are also raised. At some places, vegetables are sold at 2-3 yuan for every half kilo.
The public responded strongly to the price hike. Recently, the China Youth Daily and the news channel in Tencent website jointly launched a survey on people’s reaction to such price hike. About 2,882 people took the survey and the result showed that 53.3% of them felt the current prices for daily necessities were “relatively high” but still “acceptable”, and 39.7% of them said that the current prices were already unacceptable to them.
During the first half of the year, China’s GDP grew by 10.9% and CPI grew only by 1.3% during this period. Still, many people reacted strongly to this price hike and the reason for this might be that all goods that were raised in prices were closely related with people’s daily life.
