BEIJING: Inflation in China slowed in January, rising 2.2 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. That was below December’s 2.8 percent increase.

China is trying to prevent overheating of its economy, which last year expanded 10.7 percent, the fastest pace since 1995. An export boom drove a $15.9 billion trade surplus in January that is pumping cash into the financial system.

Food prices jumped 5 percent in January, including a 6.9 percent increase in grain prices.

China’s central bank has set a target level of inflation of 3 percent or below this year.

The assistant governor of the bank, Yi Gang, said Tuesday that the bank was “strongly determined” to curb inflation and was monitoring the consumer price index and other economic data.

Meanwhile, the former secretary of the U.S. Treasury, John Snow, said that the United States could not force Beijing to allow faster gains in the yuan, and that dialogue was the best way to achieve appreciation.

“It’s in China’s own interest to continue to allow the yuan to expand in terms of flexibility,” Snow, now chairman of Cerberus Capital Management, which is based in New York, said in an interview in Hong Kong. “I don’t think we can force China to do anything.”

Snow made his remarks after the Group of Seven nations over the weekend urged China to allow the yuan to move more on a trade-weighted basis.

The head of the People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, said last week that the current pace of appreciation was “appropriate.”

The yuan has gained 6.4 percent against the dollar since China revalued the currency by 2.1 percent in July 2005 and ended a decade-old link of about 8.3 to the U.S. currency. The central bank limits movements against the dollar to no more than 0.3 percent on either side of a daily fixed rate.

Snow called for China to let the yuan rise faster during his three-year tenure as Treasury secretary and was in office when China ended the currency’s fixed exchange rate.

Snow also called for China to open its markets to fund inflows.

“Rising foreign ownership is consistent with their other objectives, which is creation of good jobs and stability in the economy,” Snow said.

World Bank sees 9.6% GDP

The World Bank said on Wednesday that China’s blistering economic growth would cool slightly this year but should still expand nearly 10 percent, driven by exports and investment, The Associated Press reported from Beijing.

But the country’s bulging trade imbalance remains a concern as exports continue to outstrip imports, the bank said in its quarterly report on China’s economy.

The World Bank said the economy should grow by 9.6 percent in 2007, down from last year’s 10.7 percent, its highest rate since 1995.

AN outbreak of the deadly H5 bird flu virus has struck a poultry farm, killing almost 1000 turkeys, government vets confirmed last night.

Experts were called to the farm near Lowestoft, Suffolk, late on Thursday following the outbreak of an “unexplained” illness.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) last night that preliminary tests had confirmed the presence of the highly pathogenic H5 virus, but it is not yet known if it is the H5N1 strain, which can be passed to people and has claimed dozen of human lives in Asia.

Further tests were being carried out on the birds which died at a farm believed to be owned by Bernard Matthews, in Holton near Halesworth.

Defra said reports from the farm were received late on Thursday night and the premises were immediately placed under restrictions.

“A full investigation began at 9am this (Friday) morning, with samples being sent to Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Weybridge, for testing,” she said.

It is understood the farmer reported a suspected outbreak after a “significant” number of his birds died suddenly.

About 80% to 90% of the turkeys in the shed were showing signs of illness - going off their food and general malaise, which are among the symptoms of avian flu.

Chickens culled

There are 15 types of bird, or avian, flu. The most contagious strains, which are usually fatal in birds, are H5 and H7.

There are nine different types of H5. The nine all take different forms - some are highly pathogenic, while some are pretty harmless.

The type currently causing concern is the deadly strain H5N1, which can prove fatal to humans.

In May last year, more than 50,000 chickens were culled after an outbreak of the H7 bird flu in farms in the neighbouring county of Norfolk.

It is the second time in less than 12 months that an East Anglian poultry farm has been hit by bird flu.

More than 30,000 birds were slaughtered after chickens near Dereham, Norfolk, tested positive in April.

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