The government announced Monday it will intervene to stop pork prices plunging excessively and shield pig farmers from market volatility.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner and price regulator, said it has started purchasing frozen pork from the market to increase national pork reserves as prices have kept falling over the past months.

Farmers increased their hog numbers last year when pork prices were high, increasing supplies this year but pushing prices down since Chinese Lunar New Year.

Zhou Wangjun, deputy head of the Price Department with the NDRC, said the hog-to-corn price ratio, a major indicator of the sector's profitability, has fallen below 6 for the last four weeks due to cyclical fluctuations.

A reading above 6 is considered the break-even point for pig farmers thus the current ratio suggests they are generally making a loss.

Zhou said the NDRC move will boost the government's pork reserves to regulate the market and "strike a balance" for farmers, retailers and consumers.

The NDRC official advised pig farmers to adjust their farming plans according to price changes to stabilize pig production.

However, farmers reducing their hog numbers drastically could push inflation up next year, as pork prices make up a large part of food prices, which account for about one-third of the weighting in the calculation of consumer price index (CPI).

China's CPI growth eased to 3.4 percent in April, retreating from 3.6 percent in March.

Inflation remains a major concern for the Chinese government in recent years and the volatile swine market has complicated the government's price control efforts.

As pork is the most widely consumed meat in China, pork prices were the main driver of last year's sky-high CPI figure of 5.4 percent, well above the government's control target of 4 percent.

滬江英語快訊：年后，市場上生豬肉價格持續(xù)走低，肉價的回落有利于物價保持穩(wěn)定，CPI可繼續(xù)控制在較低水平。現(xiàn)在國家因生豬價格低迷，已經(jīng)啟動收購凍豬肉，這在維護生豬養(yǎng)殖戶利益的同時，客觀上也必然抬高豬肉價格。豬肉是國民食用的主要肉類，肉價漲還是跌，可是攸關(guān)民生問題呢！

滬江小編科普時間到：

生豬價格和CPI的關(guān)系：當前我國的CPI是由8類商品構(gòu)成：分別為食品、煙酒及用品、衣著、家庭設(shè)備用品及維修服務(wù)費、醫(yī)療保健及個人用品、交通和通信、娛樂教育文化用品及服務(wù)、居住，各大類價格指數(shù)的權(quán)重分別約為：食品33％，日用品5％，衣著9％，家庭設(shè)備及維修4％，醫(yī)療保健11％，交通通信9％，娛樂教育文化15％，居住14％。CPI主要統(tǒng)計了八類商品的價格變動，其中食品在CPI中的權(quán)重為33.2%。而在食品大類中，肉禽產(chǎn)品約占食品消費的20%，而豬肉約占食品消費的10%左右。所以，生豬價格的上漲和下降對于CPI的影響很大，而CPI是衡量民生的重要指標，所以從生豬價格上可以間接看出民生狀況。