Chapter 8 1. 1994 was not a false alarm

The thing is so strange, just now we were still troubled by the "difficulty in selling grain" for farmers, but it turned around overnight, "difficulty in buying grain" everywhere, and the price of grain has been rising steadily. Beginning at the end of 1993, a nationwide wave of rising food prices broke out. In November 1993, grain prices in Guangdong Province rose first, and spread to neighboring provinces at a rate of 0.3 to 0.5 yuan per kilogram.In just over a month, it has affected the whole country, and almost all provinces and cities have experienced sharp rises in grain prices. The highest price of standard rice in Guangdong Province has reached 2.4 to 2.8 yuan per kilogram, almost doubling.The highest price for one meter in Hunan province reached 2.2 yuan per kilogram, compared with 1.3 yuan two months ago.In Shanghai, a standard meter sells for 2.6 yuan.In Beijing, food prices rose three times a day, with the highest price per meter rising to around 2.8 yuan.

According to the statistics of the food department, from November to December 1993, the national food price rose by more than 80%, ranking first in the price increase of daily consumer goods. On December 25, 1993, the State Council held an emergency meeting to stabilize grain and oil prices.Requiring all grain business units across the country to limit their operations has played a certain role in curbing the soaring price of grain, but it has not completely controlled the upward trend.Into 1994, food prices continued to rise.In Guangdong, "cat tooth rice" has risen to 4 yuan per kilogram; in Hunan, late indica rice sells for 3 yuan per kilogram; in Kunming, ordinary early indica rice also sells for 2.5 yuan.The state adopted a series of macro-control measures for this purpose. It was not until the second half of 1994 that the rise in food prices was basically under control, but it was already at a high level.The national average is about 2.2-2.4 yuan per kilogram for early indica rice, 2.8-3.0 yuan per kilogram for late indica rice, and 3.0-3.6 yuan per kilogram for high-quality rice.According to the Statistical Bulletin of the National Bureau of Statistics, in 1994, grain prices rose by 50.7%, more than twice the rate of increase in consumer prices (24.1%).

The nationwide food price surge was so fast and so large that it was unique after liberation. In China, there is nothing like sensitivity to food.The Chinese, who had just had a full meal for a few days, could not help but feel panic and shock in the face of this sudden surge in food prices. Due to special political reasons, food has long been a special commodity strictly controlled and monopolized by the Chinese government.Farmers hand in "patriotic grain" at a low price, and the state distributes "policy grain" at a low price.Urban residents pay a symbolic price to buy food with their unique food books, and the price does not need to be considered by urban residents.Although the state has raised food prices several times, until 1991, the food distributed was still only 0.29 yuan per kilogram, and each urban resident only needed to spend 4.5 yuan, which is the money of one or two ice bricks, to eat a full meal. moon.

But now, 4.5 yuan can't buy two kilograms of rice. Chinese people who have long been accustomed to eating "policy" food and buying "welfare" food began to feel nervous: Are we going to tighten our belts again? On December 24, 1993, a grain store in Dongcheng District, Beijing opened its doors at 8:30 in the morning. Within less than three hours, Fuqiangfen raised its price twice in a row.An old lady said worryingly: With such an increase method, we still don’t know what the increase will look like. We are panicking! It's no wonder that the Chinese people's ability to bear is poor. With such a skyrocketing food price, who is not panicked?Rice, which used to cost a few cents a kilogram, has now risen to a few yuan a kilogram, and it is still going up. As wage earners and ordinary citizens, both psychologically and economically, it is unbearable.

The rise in food prices this time has made many people realize that China's food issue will always be the first and most important issue. Food is the first of all things and the most basic necessities of human life.Among all commodities, it is the core and the "leader". The rise in food prices will inevitably drive up the prices of all food-transformed commodities, as well as the prices of other consumer goods.According to statistics from the statistics department, the rise in food prices has at least affected the price rises of more than a thousand commodities. First of all, the prices of feed, wine, pork, biscuits and other commodities have doubled. Since the end of 1993, with the rise in food prices, pork and poultry eggs have followed closely.The price of pork in Hunan Province rose rapidly from 6 yuan per kilogram to 10 yuan. In 1994, the price rose to 16 yuan. After government intervention, it is still maintained at around 12 yuan.In Heilongjiang province, the price of pork rose by 2 yuan per kilogram to around 13 yuan within a week.Vegetables are not to be outdone, they are basically multiplied.Eggplants sell for 9.0 yuan per kilogram, and beans sell for 5 yuan per kilogram.

After snapping up food, the citizens started snapping up home appliances and jewelry again.In Shanghai, a large number of citizens flocked to stores to snap up all kinds of durable consumer goods; in Beijing, large-capacity refrigerators, large-screen color TVs, stereos, and gold jewelry and other valuables in major shopping malls showed signs of being out of stock; in Shanghai stores, Gold jewelry and household appliances were snapped up in large quantities; in Zhengzhou, Henan, even daily necessities such as wool and blankets were sold out; in Xi’an, most shops were sold out of gold jewelry; Color TVs were sold out, and operators took the opportunity to increase the price by about 400 yuan...China finally experienced the most serious inflation since 1988. In 1993, the national retail industry prices rose by 13%, and the living expenses of residents rose by 14.7%. In 1994, the peak was reached again, the national retail prices rose by 21.7%, and the price of residents' living expenses rose by 24.1%.Among them, grain prices rose by an average of 48.7%, and grain-led food prices continued to rise by 35.2%, which were 21.7 and 13.5 percentage points higher than commodity price increases.

Chinese people have always been very sensitive to prices. From the top officials to the lowest-level people, they all regard the unity of prices and stability as a conjoined twin, or a seesaw.From the liberation of the whole country to 1978, a box of matches has always been two cents, and Beijing's subway has been raised from 10 cents to 20 cents, and it has been discussed by the Central Secretariat for a long time.The overall rise in prices led by food prices this time has to tighten the sensitive nerves of the Chinese people.Of course, China's previous food prices were obviously not in line with the value of commodities, and this price increase has a "recovery" nature, but China's price reform can only be carried out gradually, rather than opening the floodgate all at once. In January 1992, Russia fully liberalized prices, and all kinds of prices doubled. By the end of the year, the prices of consumer goods had increased by 14.6 times, natural gas by 13 times, oil by 25 times, and coal by 41 times.As a result, nearly 20 million people lived below the poverty line and industrial production fell by 20%.The Russian leader has to admit that the "unrestrained rise" in prices after the deregulation of prices has destroyed the basis of economic recovery and accelerated the speed of the collapse.

China is a much poorer country than Russia, and its residents have a poor foundation.If the inflation rate cannot be effectively controlled, especially if the food price increases too fast, hundreds of millions of people will struggle to make ends meet. The Chinese government took forceful measures and finally curbed the substantial increase in commodity prices (especially food prices), and the market became calm again.But what we want to say is that this wave of price hikes is by no means a false alarm. It has exposed many weaknesses and deficiencies in China's grain production, consumption, and distribution, and it will give people who have just had enough to eat for a few days. Forget that the hungry are ringing the alarm bells.