China’s government stops Wilmar’s cooking oil price hike
The move was made as the country battles to contain fast rising food price inflation.
The price hike freeze effectively extends a price cap initially imposed in November last year.
In a statement, OCBC said it believes that the price caps will be imposed for an extended period of time, given that food price inflation is only expected to ease in 2H11.
“While we understand that the Chinese government has been releasing subsidized oil to refiners, it can only at best mitigate the margin squeeze from rising commodity prices,” the bank said.