China pork prices stabilizing

BEIJING - China's pork prices are gradually stabilizing after seeing continuous declines over the past several months, according to statistics from a price monitoring system launched by the Xinhua News Agency.

Pork prices have seen a slower drop since mid-May and are showing signs of steadying, with a slight increase of 0.1 percent on Sunday compared with Saturday, the statistics showed.

Prices have plunged since the Spring Festival holiday, as farmers increased their pig stocks last year when prices shot up, which drove up supplies and pushed prices down this year.

Price regulators announced last month that frozen pork will be purchased from the market to increase national reserves, stop pork prices from plunging excessively and protect farmers against market volatility.

Pork prices were the main driver of last year's sky-high consumer price index (CPI) figure of 5.4 percent, which was well above the government's control target of 4 percent for the year.

Pork is the most widely consumed meat in China.