By Tu Lei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-09-06 14:14

"China economy shows no sign of overheating," said Bi Jingquan, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told a press conference in Beijing on September 4, according to People's Daily Online.

The general balance of demand and supply has not been compromised, although the gross domestic product (GDP) in the first half of this year rose by 11.5 percent or 0.5 percentage points compared with the same period of last year, said Bi.

"Supplies of coal, electricity and oil have not been interrupted although a few items such as pork are short in supply," said Bi at the news briefing held by the State Council Information Office.

However, there is no threat of high inflation despite recent steep rises in food prices, said Bi.

The CPI - a key gauge of inflation - hit a 10-year high of 5.6 percent in July and rose by an average of 3.5 percent in the first seven months of the year, of which 2.9 percentage points were attributed to rising food costs, he said.

The crops supply in China is sufficient to maintain market stability, said Bi, explaining that production levels for summer crops of this year was up 4.39 billion jin, and a strong harvest is expected this Autumn.

Pork prices stabilized in the past three weeks because of improved supply, but fluctuations in the meat market are inevitable, Bi said.

Bi said that the country produced 53 percent of the world's total pork last year. It imported 30,000 tons and exported 95,000 tons through July this year.

China is the world's largest pork producer, and the country is unlikely to import pork by the millions of tons every year, so the skewed supply-demand situation with livestock is expected to balance by mid-2008, Bi said.

Meanwhile, Chen Deming, another vice minister of NDRC, said China is speeding up renewable energy construction.

The consumption amount of renewable energy will account for 10 percent of energy consumption by 2010, 15 percent in 2020, and China will form renewable energy technology equipment ability with its own intellectual property rights.

The key development plan for renewable energy includes hydro, bio-energy, wind and solar power.

By 2020, China will have built generators producing 300 million kilowatts (kW) of hydro power, 30 million kW of wind power, 30 million kW of bio-energy power, and 1.8 million kW of solar power.

As for price adjustments on oil products, Bi said NDRC has not yet received the applications from China National Petroleum Corporation and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation for raising oil products prices.

But he said the policy for perfecting oil products prices is clear, and the time will be set according to international market oil prices and social reactions.