Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a recent speech made while celebrating the New Year with political advisors, reiterated China's stepped-up efforts to stabilize prices in 2011.

A week earlier, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in a live chat over radio with listeners on Dec. 26, was seeking public confidence in his government's ability to contain inflation in the world's second largest economy.

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose to a 28-month high of 5.1 percent year on year in November.

Over the past two months, China has repeatedly stressed its resolution and introduced a series of measures to stem inflation.

The price-stabilizing bid, which carries significance not only in economic terms but also in safeguarding social stability in China, has begun to bear fruit and will continue to weigh high on government's agenda for 2011, analysts and officials said.

Price hike

A sharp price rise of vegetables was suddenly felt around mid-October at a market in Xuanwu district, downtown Beijing, as Li, a local housewife who bought vegetables every morning, recalled.

"Turnips, eggplant and many other ordinary vegetables are more expensive than before," she said. "The price of summer squash has increased from 1 yuan (US$0.15) to 2.5 yuan for 500 grams."

A retired literary editor, Li takes care of the daily cooking for her five-member family. She said her family's weekly food expenditure increased significantly, though their income remained unchanged.

Figures from southern Beijing's Xinfadi market, northern China's largest agricultural produce distribution center, indicated the weighted average price of vegetables at the market for the first 10 months of 2010 rose 20 to 30 percent year on year.

Prices of edible oil, pork, eggs, and fruit, among others, also registered rises at Xinfadi market, especially since mid-2010.

China saw a rise in prices of food including grain, meat, aquatic products, fresh vegetables and fruits, and others in 2010, noted Li Jianwei, an economist with the Development Research Center under the State Council.

Calling November's price rises "beyond many people's expectations," Sheng Laiyun, spokesman with the National Bureau of Statistics, cited rises in food prices and housing utility costs as the main drivers of the inflation increase.

Food prices have a one-third weighting in the calculation of China's CPI, and an 11.7-percent rise in food prices contributed to 74 percent of the CPI growth in November. Housing utility costs rose 5.8 percent in November, contributing to 18 percent of the CPI increase.

The pressure from surging prices in food and house rents was apparently felt by citizens, especially low-income earners, in China, where per capita GDP was only one-tenth of that in developed countries, according to officials.

In 2009, the yearly per capita net income for China's urban residents was 17,175 yuan (about US$2,526) while that for rural residents was 5,153 yuan.