Top economic planner reiterates resolve to maintain price stability in China

China's top economic planner said Thursday that the country will keep the price level "basically stable" in the second half of this year while deepening market-oriented pricing reforms. In the second half, China will not relax in its task of keeping the general price level basically stable, according to an article published on the website of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The commission will strengthen price monitoring and manage inflation expectations well, in order to ensure the expected goal of macro economic control, according to the unnamed NDRC official who penned the article. China targets 3.5-percent growth in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, for the whole year of 2013. The latest official data show that the CPI grew 2.4 percent year on year in the first half of the year, leaving room for economic rebalancing. In the second half of the year, the commission will unswervingly insist on market-oriented pricing reforms, with a focus on improving the price formation mechanisms for resource products, according to the article. Meanwhile, China has kicked off a spate of reforms in various economic sectors in an effort to make its economy more vigorous and sustainable, including delegating administrative power to lower levels and easing controls in the financial sector.