Social payments tweaked to keep up with rising prices

BEIJING - China plans to change its system of distributing social aid to make needy people in both urban and rural areas better able to cope with a continuous rise in consumer prices seen since July.

Provincial governments have been asked to set up a mechanism linking relief payments with rises in local consumer price indexes (CPIs) by the end of the year , according to a recent announcement by the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, and other four ministries.

Each government was required to identify a set of conditions that would cause it to put such mechanisms into effect. According to the announcement, the mechanisms should be triggered when residents' basic living costs or the local CPIs rise above specified levels.