China Intervenes in Oil Market With Historic Sale of Reserves
- Measure comes amid faster inflation, rising raw material costs
- Government agency specifies that it is targeting prices
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China made an unprecedented intervention in the global oil market, releasing crude from its strategic reserve for the first time with the explicit aim of lowering prices.
The announcement comes amid surging energy costs in China, not just for oil but also for coal and natural gas, and electricity shortages in some provinces that have forced some factories to cut production. Inflation is rapidly rising too, a political headache for Beijing.