Citizens line up to buy pork in Hechi. [File photo/Hechi Daily]

Hechi has devoted great efforts to ensuring the good supply and stable pricing of daily necessities, and its consumer price index (CPI) only increased by 1.9 percent in 2020, ranking top in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in terms of its price regulation effect.

Hechi's CPI growth in 2020 was 0.9 percent lower than the regional average level and 0.6 percent lower than the national average level.

Controlling the price of pork can fundamentally control consumer prices to some extent. The price of pork in Hechi was around 55 yuan ($8.5) per kilogram at the end of 2020 - yet this figure was 70 yuan per?kg at the end of 2019.

A person in charge of the Hechi development and reform commission said that the city has taken initiatives such as ensuring the supply and price of pork, postponed raising the prices of medical services and increased temporary price subsidies to guarantee the basic livelihoods of low-income people.

The pig production of Hechi in 2020 reached 1.32 million, halting the recent decline of pig production. Hechi also transported about 220,000 pigs from other provinces, releasing a total of 205 metric tons of government reserves of frozen pork and 23,700 pigs to the local market.

The production of beef cattle in Hechi reached 190,000 with a year-on-year increase of 8.4 percent, while the production of mutton sheep was 740,000, climbing by 7.6 percent year-on-year. The poultry production of the city in 2020 grew by 17.6 percent year-on-year to more than 32 million, and fishery production climbed by 3 percent to 67,000 tons.

Hechi has released a total of 166 million yuan in temporary price subsidies, benefiting 541,900 people in straitened circumstances.

Efforts were also made in strengthening market supervision. Overall fines of 20,200 yuan were handed to five illegal pricing cases in 2020.