Prices have been rising steadily since November. Last week, meat prices increased as stimulated by consumer demand, where wholesale prices of pork increased by 2 per cent over the previous week. Meanwhile, prices of beef and mutton have increased by 0.7 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively.

And, edible oil prices continued to climb. Prices of soybean oil, blending oil, peanut oil and rapeseed oil, have been increasing by 1.5, 1.1, 1.1 and 0.9 per cent respectively, as compared with the previous week.

Market monitoring also indicated that grain prices went up last week. Among them, the price of smaller packaged rice remained the same from the previous week, while the price of smaller-packaged flour rose by 0.3 per cent , as compare with the previous week. Most parts of China have adequate supply of vegetables, while average wholesale prices of 20 types of vegetables fell by 1.6 per cent , as compared to the previous week. Egg prices dropped slightly and the price of chicken and eggs fell by 0.6 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively.