China says to meet CPI target, vegetable prices to fall

China will be able to keep the full-year growth in its consumer price index (CPI) at about 3 percent, China's planning agency said on Monday.
Thee National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said that vegetable prices, which helped to push China's consumer inflation to an 18-month high in April, would fall in coming months as supplies increase.
Analysts have said a big drop in vegetable prices may bring down the overall consumer price level, and the NDRC said average wholesale prices of 24 vegetables had already fallen 17.9 percent as of May 19 from the end of April.
As the summer harvest season approaches, vegetable prices are likely to fall further, the agency added.
Consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.8 percent in April from a year earlier, and the agency said CPI growth in May and June would be around 3 percent.
NDRC said earlier that a low comparison factor contributed 1.5 percentage points and new price growth contributed another 1.3 percentage points, in which price rises in grain, vegetables and fruits made up 1.1 percentage points.
China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, when asked on Monday whether the People's Bank of China would be most influenced by the European debt crisis or the real negative interest rate in deciding whether to raise interest rates, said it would consider mainly domestic factors in deciding monetary policy moves.