Agricultural prices had fallen for the seventh consecutive week as of May 25, indicating that the quake in Sichuan Province has not had a major impact on food prices, Shanghai Securities News reported on May 28.

The newspaper cited latest statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, which showed that farm produce prices in 36 large and medium-sized cities fell 0.7 percent between May 19 and 25 from a week earlier.

Of the 58 main categories of agricultural products, 31 saw prices decrease, 17 saw a rise and 10 were unchanged.

Farm produce prices dropped 2.9 percent month on month in the first three weeks of May, which showed that food price pressures had weakened, according to Chief Economist Ha Jiming of China International Capital Corp. Food prices account for about a third of the consumer price index in China.

Post-quake Economics

China's central banker has cautioned against an overly rapid rise in prices and investment in relief and recovery efforts after the May 12 earthquake.

"We must mainly focus on the operation of China's economy after the quake. While meeting the demand of enterprises in quake relief, we should ensure the implementation of macro-control measures," said Governor Zhou Xiaochuan of the People's Bank of China, during his visit to the central bank's management office in southwestern Chongqing Municipality on May 26.

Chinese banks have been told to help quake victims and relief work by lifting credit lines, extending loan maturities and writing off bad loans in the quake zone. Analysts said the moves could further test the government's tight monetary policy to curb inflation and fixed-asset investment.

Resilient Software Industry

China's software exports surged in the first four months of this year, due largely to technological innovation, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on May 29.

Between January and April, software exports totaled $3.27 billion, a 54.9-percent increase over the same period in 2007. Exports have grown rapidly from $10.24 billion in 2007.

The ministry said the sector's revenue was 583.4 billion yuan ($83.3 billion) in 2007. Chinese software accounted for 8.7 percent of the global industry last year.

According to official statistics, the software sector's revenue was 193.55 billion yuan ($27.7 billion) in the January-April period of 2008, a 31.2-percent increase compared to the same period in 2007.

Sinopec Shifts Priorities

Sinopec, China's largest oil refiner, said it would increase its oil processing and halt the export of oil products in the third quarter to ensure an adequate domestic supply.

Disaster relief is a top priority for Sinopec, according to the company. It will work in tandem with the government to keep the prices of oil products in quake-hit regions stable.

The company is making emergency deliveries of gasoline and diesel to earthquake-hit regions. It also ordered several of its refineries to raise output in response to the disaster.

Stock Prophet Imprisoned

A self-styled "prophet" of China's stock market has been jailed for three years and fined 600,000 yuan ($85,700) for illegally selling stock tips over the Internet.

Wang Xiujie, known to Chinese Internet users as "Big Brother Leader 777," was convicted on May 23 at the Luyuan District People's Court in Changchun, Jilin Province, of running an illegal business.

Wang, 35, made a total of 205,000 yuan ($29,300) by selling tips to 16 people from May 2006 to May 2007, the court said. Chinese law prohibits the provision of securities consultancy services without the approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.