China issued management measures to sanction local commerce authorities who conceal any market disorder, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced on Dec.19.

The measures stipulate that any local competent commerce authority guilty of concealing, lying about or failing to report unusual market fluctuations will face administrative penalties, including criminal sanctions.

The MOC said the measures will take effect from Feb. 1, 2012 in order to monitor and control unusual fluctuations caused by unexpected incidents in the daily necessities market.

The measures said unexpected incidents like natural disasters, accidents and public health emergencies impact and alter the supply and demand of daily necessities, which may result in price turbulence.

The Chinese government has been working to curb inflation throughout2011 by lifting the deposit reserve rate, boosting grain production, cutting taxes in the transportation of fresh agricultural products and cracking down on forestalling the market.

The country's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 4.2 percent in November, the slowest pace since 3.6 percent last September.

However, the country's CPI rose 5.5 percent year-on-year from Jan. to Nov. this year, peaking at 6.5 percent in July, a total well above the government's full-year inflation control target of 4 percent.