China aims for greater transparency with new pricing mechanism

China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said the country is likely to announce a new pricing mechanism for refined products “more transparent than the current one,” this year, Xinhua news agency reported. Liu Zhenqiu, vice director of NDRC’s price department, spoke about the proposed new mechanism at a press conference in Beijing, but did not state when the new mechanism would be introduced or what the changes would be. The further improvements to the pricing structure would make prices of refined oil products more flexible and better reflect changes in supply and demand, Liu said. (October 25, 2010)