IN BRIEF (Page 9)

NDRC says no stagflation

China won't experience stagflation this year and forecasts that consumer prices will rise by 7 percent in the second half have "no basis", the National Development and Reform Commission said on Friday.

The commission said it was responding to a report in the Economic Information Daily in which Gao Huiqing, an economist at the State Information Center, forecast inflation could accelerate to around 7 percent. While growth in the CPI in some months this year may exceed 3 percent, the government's overall target for 2010 of inflation of around 3 percent is achievable, the NDRC said in its statement.