Chinese corporate goods price (CGP) index, also called the wholesale price index rose 9.2 percent year-on-year in February, or 1.1 percent month-on-month, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, announced on Monday.

Wholesale prices reflect changes in the prices of commodities traded among enterprises on wholesale markets.

Farm produce and mineral products were priced 13.4 percent and 20.7 percent, respectively, higher than the year-earlier level, or 1.8 percent higher than in January.

Prices of coal, oil and electricity went up 14.1 percent on average from a year earlier and 0.6 percent from a month earlier.

Edible oil and processed meat products saw prices rise 44.2 percent and 58.9 percent, respectively, over the same month last year. Prices of raw grain, processed grain and vegetables rose 9.5 percent, 5.8 percent and 26.5 percent, respectively.

Prices of refined oil went up 10.4 percent year-on-year, while those of iron ore, rolled steel and gold soared 33 percent, 29 percent and 26.8 percent, respectively.

However, car prices were 2.7 percent lower on average, the PBOC said.

China faces mounting inflationary pressure. The consumer price index rose to a nearly 12-year high of 8.7 percent in February, driven largely by a 23.3 percent jump in food prices.

In Premier Wen Jiabao's Government Work Report, which was delivered to the National People's Congress on March 5, he said that a priority this year would be to restrain prices. He promised that the government would try to hold CPI increases within 4.8 percent this year.

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2008)