THE National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said yesterday that it will “roll out effective measures in a timely way to keep economic operations within a reasonable range.” The NDRC vowed to devote full efforts to stabilize commodity prices and steadily increase domestic coal production to offset the rising uncertainties in the international market. It will continue to closely monitor commodity market and price trends, to find problems and deal with it timely. The next step is to ensure market coal supply and release coal production capacity as soon as possible, and give the full play to coal storages. It also called for the implementation of policies to support the country’s catering and retail sectors. Spending on new energy vehicles (NEVs) should also be supported, said Meng Wei, spokeswoman for the country’s top economic planner. Data on Monday showed March retail sales contracted the most on an annual basis since April 2020, down 3.5%, due to COVID-19 resurgences across the country. China’s accommodation and catering sector contracted in the January-March period from a year earlier for the first time since 2020, pointing to flagging consumption weakened by COVID curbs on travel and social-distancing rules. The sector’s output shrank by an inflation-adjusted 0.3% in the January-March period to 386.1 billion yuan (US$60.6 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement yesterday. Accommodation and catering last contracted in the third quarter of 2020, when output fell 5.1%. “The top priority is to implement policies to help assist troubled industries, such as catering and retail,” Meng told reporters.(SD-Agencies) | 