BEIJING (AP)--China on Tuesday announced price controls on fertilizer in a bid to hold down farmers' costs and ensure plentiful food stocks.
The announcement adds fertilizer to a list of sensitive items whose prices cannot be raised without special approval that already includes grain, pork, milk, eggs, liquefied natural gas - widely used in China for cooking - and other unspecified "important goods."
Price controls will run through the spring planting season, according to an announcement by the National Development and Reform Commission that was carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.
Beijing has imposed a series of measures to cool a six-month-old inflation surge driven largely by soaring food costs. High costs of feed and other inputs has been among the reasons given for a spike in the price of pork, according to the NDRC, the main economic planning agency. As of Wednesday, pork was up 43% over the same time last year.
Source: Dow Jones Newswires