China's consumer price inflation is forecast to be around 3 percent in 2013, the price monitoring unit of the country's top economic planning agency, the National Development & Reform Commission, said on Monday.
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For the first quarter, consumer prices are expected to rise around 2.8 percent from the same period a year earlier, it said in remarks carried in the official China Securities Journal.
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Last week, outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao, speaking at the opening of the annual session of parliament, said China would target economic growth of 7.5 percent and inflation at 3.5 percent.
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Yi Gang, vice governor of the People's Bank of China, said last week that inflation in China this year could touch 3 percent, up from 2.6 percent last year.
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The country's annual inflation rate hit a 10-month high of 3.2 percent in February, as holiday spending for the Lunar New Year drove food prices sharply higher, data showed last week.