China Said to Tell Cooking-Oil Packagers Not to Raise Price Before Holiday

China’s top economic planner ordered suppliers of packaged cooking oil not to raise prices before the holidays later this month, two trading executives familiar with the matter said.

At a meeting with the National Development and Reform Commission and other government officials in Beijing yesterday, suppliers of packaged oil to retailers were told to keep prices unchanged even as bulk-oil costs increased, said the executives, who declined to be identified as the meeting was private.

Government officials said they will review prices after the holidays and may consider releasing some stockpiled bulk oil then to help reduce suppliers’ costs, they said.

Authorities must scrutinize prices for food, transportation and tourism during the Mid-Autumn Day and National Day holidays that begin Sept. 22 and end Oct. 7, the commission said in a statement posted on its website yesterday.

China is the world’s biggest consumer of soybean oil and rapeseed oil. Premier Wen Jiabao’s government has a target of keeping inflation within 3 percent this year.

Calls to the office phone of Li Pumin, a spokesman for the reform commission, were not immediately answered.

--William Bi. Editor: James Poole

To contact the Bloomberg News staff on this story: William Bi in Beijing at wbi@bloomberg.net

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