BEIJING is poised to boost state control over the economy, according to officials in the State Planning Commission (SPC) and other economic ministries.
Economic sources in Beijing said State Council bureaucrats were putting stability before reform or high-speed growth, particularly in view of patriarch Deng Xiaoping's failing health.
Xinhua (the New China News Agency) yesterday quoted SPC officials as saying the central Government would 'strengthen macro-level adjustments and controls' over prices.
In the past six months, Beijing has reinstated elements of central planning, like grain coupons to keep down the prices of foodstuff and other necessities.
Provincial newspapers have hinted that a number of cadres associated with former party chiefs Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang have expressed opposition to this apparent retrogression.
The SPC officials told Xinhua that last December, retail food prices in 35 large and medium-sized cities had continued to go up.
'In the coming months, the task for suppressing inflation remains very tough,' said an official in the SPC's Department of Regulations on Markets and Prices.