How to view the price "scissors gap" continues to narrow
In February, the "scissors gap" of prices continued to narrow, which means that upstream and downstream price trends tend to be coordinated, which will help reduce the pressure on production input costs for some mid-stream and downstream enterprises, and ease structural inflation pressures.
The latest price data released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in February, the CPI rose by 0.9% year-on-year, and the PPI rose by 8.8% year-on-year. With the PPI falling for four consecutive months and the CPI remaining basically stable, the "scissors gap" between the two further narrowed to 7.9. percentage points, which is 4.1 percentage points lower than the high value in October 2021.
The continuous narrowing of the "scissors gap" in prices means that upstream and downstream price trends tend to be coordinated, which will help reduce the pressure on production input costs for some mid- and downstream enterprises, and ease structural inflation pressures.
Since 2021, my country has coordinated epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, optimized and implemented rescue policies for enterprises, and adopted a series of measures to ensure supply and stabilize prices, such as supply and demand adjustment, market supervision, and expectation guidance, and achieved positive results.
In February of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other relevant departments, issued 18 measures to promote the steady growth of the industrial economy and 43 measures to promote the recovery and development of difficult industries in the service sector. The effect of the policy implementation will gradually appear. .
However, it should also be noted that commodity prices are still at a high level, and continuous efforts are needed to help small and medium-sized enterprises relieve their burdens.
In February, the PPI increased by 0.5% month-on-month, of which the price of production materials changed from a decrease of 0.2% to an increase of 0.7%, and the price of living materials changed from a flat to an increase of 0.1%; the month-on-month increase of the CPI also increased by 0.2 points from the previous month. percentage point.
The previously released February manufacturing PMI data showed that the overall market demand has rebounded, and companies are optimistic about the market outlook. an increase from the previous month.
At present, my country's economic development is facing the triple pressure of demand contraction, supply shock, and weakening expectations.
Affected by multiple factors such as the new crown epidemic, the monetary policy changes of major economies, and especially the intensification of geopolitical conflicts, the international commodity price situation has become more severe, complex and uncertain, posing new challenges to domestic supply and price stability.
In particular, the development foundation of small and medium-sized enterprises is not yet solid, and they still face outstanding problems such as insufficient market demand, rising costs, difficulty in collecting accounts receivable, difficulty in recruiting workers, and expensive labor.
The "Government Work Report" proposes to "improve policies such as burden relief and relief, and consolidate the foundation for stable economic operation and quality improvement", "continue to implement the tax and fee reduction policies to support manufacturing, small and micro enterprises, and individual industrial and commercial households, and increase the rate of reduction and exemption. , expand the scope of application", and demand to strengthen the effective support of finance to the real economy, and promote the reduction of production and operation costs of enterprises.
On the one hand, we should put stable growth in a more prominent position, organically combine the deepening of supply-side structural reforms with expanding domestic demand, and do everything possible to help enterprises to bail out, and take multiple measures to stabilize market expectations.
Comprehensively implement policies and precise control, and earnestly implement financial taxation, financial credit, supply and stable prices and other relief policies to help enterprises, so as to ensure smooth and accessible policy implementation and real benefits for enterprises.
On the other hand, my country has a solid foundation to achieve the annual price control target of about 3%, but we still need to pay attention to the imported inflation risk brought about by high global inflation, as well as the impact of the downstream transmission of PPI on CPI. Stable price.
Xiong Li
Xiong Li