China farm produce prices drop again

BEIJING - China's farm produce prices fell for a fourth straight week from May 21 to 27, according to a Ministry of Commerce (MOC) report released on Wednesday.

The report attributed the continuous price drop to a sufficient supply of seasonal farm produce. The wholesale prices of 18 types of vegetables monitored by the ministry dropped 1.4 percent week on week.

Egg prices dropped 0.1 percent from one week earlier and fell 10.2 percent compared with their level at the beginning of 2012.

The price of pork, a staple meat for Chinese, declined 1.0 percent from the previous week and retreated 16.5 percent from the end of January. However, beef and mutton prices respectively edged up 0.4 percent and 0.1 percent.

The fall in farm produce prices may help ease domestic inflationary pressures as food prices account for a near one-third weighting in the calculation of China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation.