Xu Lianzhong, an official at the price monitoring center of China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), has stated that China's consumer price index (CPI) growth is expected to be lower than 3.4 percent in 2012, ranging from 3.0 percent to 3.4 percent, as reported by China Security News. He also said that the fall of price growth will continue in the short term, but price growth will likely rebound in the fourth quarter of the current year.
In Mr. Xu's opinion, China's economic growth in the second quarter will be on the low side, but will recover somewhat in the third and fourth quarters. He said it seems certain that China's economic growth for the whole of the current year will be lower than its growth in the second half of the year.