China’s official price index (CPI) fell an unexpected 0.5% in November, and while economists are baffled, some food prices are rising. Hog prices in China have risen nearly 30% in the past three months, and many people are complaining that prices are rising instead of falling as they stop working and lose their jobs amid the new pneumonia epidemic. On the eve of the Chinese New Year, Chinese officials took several measures to stabilize prices, but to no avail.
Pork prices in China have risen again recently. According to an article published by Chinese online media “Huinong Explains”, pork prices have rebounded in the second half of 2019, and by the end of November 2020, pig stocks have returned to 90% of previous years, and officials also expect pork supply during New Year’s Day and Spring Festival to be 30% higher than the previous year, so pork prices are bound to drop. In fact, it is not, the current price of live pigs reached about 36 yuan per kilogram, while at the end of October the price of pigs was 28 yuan per kilogram, in just 3 months, the price of pigs jumped 7.76 yuan per kilogram, its increase was 27%. From the wholesale price of pork, the end of November was 39 yuan per kilogram, but by the end of December it had risen to more than 45 yuan, an increase of 16%.
Guangzhou resident Zhang Deli said in an interview with Radio Free Asia on Monday (4) that he went downstairs to a relatively inexpensive mini-market that day to see the price of pork: “There is a small supermarket downstairs in my house, I just went to see, the price of pork and pork bones are 69 yuan a catty, beef is 62 yuan a catty, you look at the price of a small supermarket to know that prices are now What kind of level.”
Back in late October last year, during the first half of November, the price of pork was about 21 yuan per catty. Two months later, pork prices have soared by nearly 30%. In addition, the price of lamb has also risen sharply, as of the fourth week of December last year, the wholesale price of lamb has risen to 83 yuan per kilogram, the market retail price has exceeded 100 yuan per kilogram, cooked lamb is more than 140 yuan per kilogram.
However, the official media Xinhua News Agency said prices are basically stable, while meat prices “have gone up and down”.
All things are expensive, people’s lives are more difficult
Beijing resident Liu Qin told the station that there is no food that does not increase in price, adding to the hardship of people’s lives: “The price of beef has also increased. Vegetables have also gone up, now there are no two yuan a catty of vegetables. Cabbage rose more than a yuan (2.5 yuan a catty), the people are now worse off. First, there is no work, the second prices are still rising. Prices are rising again, the people also need to eat ah, all because of the epidemic, the price of everything is rising, and do not know when the epidemic actually stopped.”
Faced with the loss of jobs in the new epidemic, prices are rising instead of falling. Guo Li, a resident of Beijing, told the station that meat prices are expensive enough to reduce meat consumption, but many people are experiencing a bigger problem: “Many people are now suffering from the epidemic, as well as those who have been laid off around the world, companies are tightening their spending, laying off employees and so on, so their income has decreased, which means that these expenses just mentioned are reduced accordingly and their living standards have all dropped. “
Monthly salary from tens of thousands of dollars down to thousands of dollars
Guo Li said, for example, many past monthly salary of about 30,000 employees of enterprises, now only three, five thousand dollars: “For example, the original salary of tens of thousands of dollars per, now only earn two, three thousand dollars. There are several office workers, their income are from the original 10,000, 20,000 yuan, 30,000, 40,000 yuan, down to three, five thousand yuan, five, six thousand yuan, some one or two thousand yuan (monthly new), and some even dismissed. Under this pressure, everything feels expensive.”
As for why pork prices are rising, the main reason is the lack of meat in the market, with China consuming more than 54.03 million tons of pork in 2018, with 700 million head of slaughter, accounting for 50% of the world. Last year, however, after the outbreak of African swine fever, the annual slaughter of pigs was 540 million head, and pork production plummeted by 13 million tons.
Reduced income inhibits spending power
Huang Xiaomin, a rights activist in Chengdu, said in an interview with the station that local prices are not too high, but the underlying problem is serious: “People are shying away from buying and the desire to buy has dropped significantly. This situation may have something to do with the decrease in income in 2020, the expectation of the future market and the lack of confidence in personal income, for sure.”
Huang Xiaomin said that many people are currently living with the mentality of saving money when they can, i.e. “saving money when they can, and not paying attention when they can.”
Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia herdsman Buren Bayar told the station that local crops to mutton are increasing in price: “Now the price is going up, we have rice this year, last year more than 70 cents a catty, this year a yuan more than 10 cents a catty, cattle and sheep before (a) seven, eight yuan a catty, now 10 to 10 yuan, is the whole. A hundred pounds of sheep two thousand yuan, cattle good more than 30,000 a head.”
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