China's consumer price inflation is forecast to be around 3 percent in 2013, the price monitoring unit of the country's top economic planning agency, the National Development & Reform Commission, said on Monday. For the first quarter, consumer prices are expected to rise around 2.8 percent from the same period a year earlier, it said in remarks carried in the official China Securities Journal.
Last week, outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao, speaking at the opening of the annual session of parliament, said China would target economic growth of 7.5 percent and inflation at 3.5 percent. Yi Gang, vice governor of the People's Bank of China, said last week that inflation in China this year could touch 3 percent, up from 2.6 percent last year.