The Chinese government on Sunday officially launched the country's first small commodities index in Zhejiang Province's Yiwu, China's largest distribution center for small commodities.

 

The index system has 23 specific sub-indices, chiefly composed of three parts: small commodity price indices, small commodity market prosperity indices and single monitoring and measuring indices.

 

Besides reflecting the changing trends of commodity prices, the index will also serve as a barometer of market prosperity, dealers' confidence and market operation situations, said Dr. Su Weihua, head of statistical and mathematic institute of Zhejiang Gongshang University, one of the co-founders of the index.

 

The quintessence of the index will be a weekly price index recap published every Tuesday and a monthly prosperity index recap at the beginning of every month, Su said.

 

The index is available on the websites of the Ministry of Commerce and of the Yiwu city government as well as some authoritative publications.

 

The basic point system of the price index stands at 100 and the prosperity index at 1000. The index published on Sunday showed that the price index for the last week was 99.97 and the prosperity for the last month was 1268.47.

 

"The index shows that the market in Yiwu is quite prosperous during the seasonal changing period," Su analyzed.

 

 

Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai put forward the idea of the Yiwu index in September last year during a tour of the city.

 

The Ministry of Commerce chose the "Yiwu-China Small Commodity Index" as its official name in June and entrusted Zhejiang Gongshang University and Hangzhou-based Hundsun Electronics Co., Ltd. to jointly develop the index program, Su said.

 

Huang Hai, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Commerce, said the index will provide scientific statistics for government decision-making and dole out timely and accurate information for small commodity producers and dealers.

 

The Ministry of Commerce is hoping the "Yiwu index" ambitions to become a recognizable brand like the Dow-Jones Average, Huang said.

 

 

 

Yiwu has more than 1,400 accessories enterprises employing almost 90,000 people. Its major products are jewelry and ties.

 

The accessories output of the city accounts for 80 percent of the country's market share with an annual sales value of nine billion yuan (US$1.13 billion). Yiwu has trade exchanges with 200 countries and regions and about US$30 billion worth of goods orders each year.

 

The city has been designated China's first national-level shopping tourist destination by the National Tourism Administration. The Yiwu market, with over 50,000 stalls, received some 3.66 million visitors last year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2006)