beyondbrics

It seems the Chinese housing bubble is at the root of all the country’s problems, even the rising price of vegetables.

Officials from China’s powerful state planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, are blaming “speculative capital” escaping from real estate and the stock market for rapid price rises in agricultural produce such as rice, corn, garlic, mung beans and ginseng.

“During the slump in stock and real estate markets, hot money is prone to flow into the agricultural market,” and “agricultural products that can be preserved for a long time are likely to be speculated on,” state media paraphrased a senior official from the NDRC as saying.

The price rises are closely related to “profiteers who are spreading rumours, hoarding and cornering with evil intent,” state media paraphrased another NDRC official as saying.

Prices are also being driven by an unusually cold spring, a drought in China’s southwest and the reduction of arable land thanks to the nation’s real estate building boom.

Luckily for the Chinese people, the government has a plan for its “struggle against speculation”.

“The NDRC will gradually set up perfect pre-arranged supervision planning on abnormal price fluctuation on agricultural products,” state media quoted an NDRC official as saying.

Take that, real estate speculators turned vegetable hoarders with evil intentions!