Overall price of commodities in China shrinks

BEIJING, Sept 15 (Xinhua): The overall average price of commodities in China shrank by 2.0 per cent in August from the previous month and by 6 per cent from the same period last year, according to the China Logistics Information Centre.
The average price in the January-August period went down 2.7 per cent from the same period last year. The decline was 0.6 per centage points larger than that in January-July.
According to the centre, the downward pressure of the domestic economy was obvious and the commodity market continued to be depressed in August.
The market demand failed to meet expectations, influenced by high temperatures, rain and typhoons, and the real estate regulation policy showed a tightening trend, which further restrained demand, it said.
The market supply is still increasing and the pressure on commodities continues to rise, leading to a renewed decline in commodity market prices.
From an industrial perspective, the five major industries monitored reported drops in prices. Among them, the prices of chemical products and ferrous metals fell the most in August from the previous month, by 4.2 per cent and 3.6 per cent, respectively.
In addition, the prices of refined oil shrank by 1.9 per cent, raw coal dropped by 0.9 per cent and non-ferrous metals fell by 0.4 per cent in August from the previous month.