South China's Guangdong Province has issued an emergency plan that will limit grain prices if panic buying occurs, Information Times said today.

The plan, which takes effect on Wednesday, stipulates that when grain prices surge more than 50 percent within seven days and panic buying lasts 15 days, the province will cut processing costs to reduce retail prices.

If the prices more than double within seven days that strains grain supplies, the government will cut the wholesale or retail price, the report said.

Local governments should provide reserved grain to ensure and control prices when necessary, the report said.

However, the wholesale price of grains grew only 0.2 percent in the first half from a year earlier in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, the report said.

China's inflation rose 3.2 percent in the first half of this year driven by surging food prices, which makes up about one-third of the consumer price index.

Grain prices increased 6.4 percent in the period.

(Shanghai Daily July 30, 2007)