Media has role in curbing inflation

With sufficient supply and adequate experience, China is well-equipped to rein in the drastic price hikes on its domestic market, particularly food prices. However, it is also crucial to ease the worries among the public to reduce the inflation expectation. And the media has a big role to play in that regard.

That opinion of the Overseas Edition of People's Daily on Tuesday is one of the alarms made by People’s Daily recently which has repeatedly warned against the risk of rising inflation expectations among the public amid the rising prices on the market, particularly food prices like vegetables.

Theoretically, an increase in prices does not mean inflation, but it could trigger inflation, according to the paper. On one hand, the government has adopted an array of measures to curb the momentum of price hikes, including sufficient supply on the market and crackdown on price manipulation. On the other hand, those efforts cannot work without easing the public's concern about inflation, which, as economists agree, could have a big impact on consumption and inflation itself.

That expectation, said the paper, is to a large extent guided by media's reports on opinions made by experts and scholars. Given that, the media should take the responsibility of delivering the right messages to the public to stabilize the market.

Specifically, that means it is important to help the public to be better informed about the government’s views and policies on the economic operation and the country's growing competence in coping with economic risks.

In addition, more publicity should be made about reforms regarding income distribution and the social safety net. In that way, people can be confident enough to keep their normal life without being disturbed by the current market volatility, which is believed to be a temporary phenomenon.

The paper also calls for other measures to tame the inflation, including preventing asset bubbles with a more prudent monetary policy, slashing monopolies for more market access for private companies, facilitating the circulation of goods through more effective market regulation and taking the interests of mid-and-low income groups into consideration in price reforms of public services.

With price stability and expansion of domestic consumption on the top agenda of the 12th Five-Year Plan, which is the roadmap of China's economic and social development for the next five years, there is every reason to believe that "no drastic inflation" can take place and more benefits of development can be shared by people, according to the paper.
By People's Daily Online