Although prices of food, housing and shares are rising, an official from a think-tank of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Wednesday claimed that "China will not face serious inflation."

Zheng Xinli, deputy director of the Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, told a press conference that price fluctuations were unavoidable but the forces that had driven up prices were dissipating.

Zheng said that China would resolve price hikes for certain goods by increasing supply.

Given the fact that the soaring price of pork, China's staple meat, has pushed up the consumer price index (CPI), the State Council worked out a series of policies to boost pork production. "In the first half of next year, the positive effects of the policies will emerge," Zheng said.

Commenting on concerns that pork supplies might exceed demand early next year, Zheng said China was building cold storage facilities. Once market prices for pork had fallen below cost, the government would increase pork reserves, so as to ensure a stable market.

He said government will also build and sell more low- and mid-priced apartments to control current excessively high housing prices.

He said efforts would also be made to maintain a stable stock market, including increasing the number of listed companies and encouraging state-owned enterprises that had already listed overseas to also list domestically.

(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2007)