In the first half of this year, the consumer price of the urban dwellers follows the trend of the 4th quarter of last year. The market price basically remains stable and edges up in the overall trend with Consumer Price Index (CPI) rising 2.5% year on year, according to the Yichang Commodity Price Bureau.

　　Statistics show that among the “eight categories” of goods and services that constitute the CPI, the prices of some categories have increased while some others have declined in the first half of 2014 compared with the same period of last year. The prices of food, clothing, household appliances and maintenance services, health care and personal products, housing price respectively rose by 3.8%, 8.6%, 0.1%, 0.3%, 2.9%, while the prices of tobacco and alcohol, transportation and communication, entertainment, education, stationery and services industry product respectively fell by 0.2%, 1.5%, 0.1% compared with the same period of last year. Food, clothing and housing prices are the main contributors to the CPI.

　　The prices of some food of necessity have increased, but some others fallen. The prices of the main grain <C:/Users/Administrator/AppData/Local/Yodao/DeskDict/frame/20140212181817/javascript:void(0);> varieties remained stable, while the prices of oil, pig and pork declined slightly.

　　Though the prices of most food dropped, the prices of poultry and egg increased. In the first half of 2013, the prices of poultry and egg generally declined because of the bird flu. After the epidemic situation, egg prices rose in the first half of this year. From January to June of this year, the average price of chicken in the urban market is 7.46 yuan/500 g, up 13% compared with the 6.6 yuan/500 g of the same period of last year.

　　The prices of the common vegetables rose over the same period of last year, and some varieties, particularly ginger, have increased sharply. In June, the lowest ginger price of the urban market was 6.5 yuan/500g and the highest price was 10 yuan/500g, up 67% compared with the average price of May (6 yuan/500 g) and up 150 % compared with the average price(4 yuan/500g )of the same period of last year.

　　It is learned that now the market is selling the stored ginger of last year. Since the ginger belongs to the tuber propagation and now it is in the sowing period, farmers are going to sow the stored ginger of this year. As a result, this situation led to a shortage of supply so that ginger prices are expected to be still high recently, but the price will come down when fresh ginger comes out. (Reporter: Pei Shujing)