With every commodity price hike, Yu Xiuwen, a Beijing retiree, feels the pressure. In October, she bought 2.5 kg of vegetable oil for 26 yuan. In December, the price rose to 29 yuan and in January, it rose further to 32 yuan.

"The price rises again," Yu said with a sigh.

A saleswoman at Merry Mart confirmed the price hike.

"The price of this kind of peanut oil rose from 38 yuan to 56 yuan and that of 5 kg of flour went up from 13.8 yuan to 15.8 yuan," she said.

Similar cases are seen in other places in China. Since December 2006, prices of grain and vegetable oil in all Chinese cities have increased. According to a survey of the Ministry of Commerce, prices rose 7-10 percent.

The price of many other agricultural products has also increased, with that of vegetables, eggs and pork rising 15 percent on average from early December.

Although the government has quickly stabilized the prices of grain and vegetable oil, the anxiety over the price hikes among urban residents has not faded.

Beyond food, costs have gone up for public utilities such as water, electricity and natural gas. In 2006, prices of these public products, guided by the government, rose in varying degrees.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the consumer price index (CPI) went up 1.5 percent in 2006, and in December alone, it rose 2.8 percent.

"I'm caring more about whether the price will continue to go up," Yu said.

If statistical weather vanes are to be believed, they will.

The corporate commodity price index (CCPI) released by the People's Bank of China (PBC), the country's central bank, strengthened this kind of worry. Statistics indicated that in December 2006, the growth of the CCPI rose to the highest level all year: 5.1 percent. The PBC releases the CCPI every month to reflect price fluctuations of capital goods and consumer goods traded among corporations, which helps paint a broader picture of price fluctuations together with the CPI.

Will the price hike continue?

Meanwhile, the way the NBS handled the price hikes was a bit too low-key for the public to accept. At a conference in early 2006, Xie Fuzhan, Commissioner of the NBS, said that the rapid growth of the CPI is mainly due to food price increases, which is just temporary. In the long run, domestic prices will remain stable, he predicted.