Chinanews, Mar. 22 – Although the consumer price index (CPI) has kept growing over the past four months, this doesn't mean that Chinese economy will incur much inflation pressure in the middle term. Chinese government is more concerned with the inflation trend, not the current inflation level, said Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, when he attended the recent annual forum of the Inter-American Development Bank, the Shanghai Securities Journal reported.

 

Last year, Chinese economy maintained a mode of high growth with low inflation rate, with the CPI growing by only 1.5% compared with the same period of the year before. However, in last November, CPI growth reached 1.9%, hitting a new high in twenty months. In last December, CPI growth further touched 2.8%. The trend continued in the new year. In January and February 2007, CPI growth rates reached 2.2% and 2.7%, respectively.

 

The high CPI growth has raised widespread concern in society. Zhou Xiaochuan also admitted that the CPI had grown “relatively high.” According to Chinese government work report, China intends to control CPI growth to below 3% this year.

 

In order to curb inflation, the central bank raised the interest rate last Saturday. The central bank said that it raised the Benchmark Interest Rates for Renminbi in order that the pricing system could remain stable. It is obvious that the central bank has taken some measures in advance to prevent the possible inflation rise.