Low Inflation

China's consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, grew 0.8 percent year on year in January, the lowest rise in more than five years, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on February 10.

Food prices, which account for nearly one third of weighting in China's CPI, increased 1.1 percent year on year. On a monthly basis, consumer prices in January edged up 0.3 percent.

The NBS attributed the tempering growth to retreating food prices due to warmer weather during the period, in addition to a bigger comparison base last year and an oil price plunge in the international market.

Meanwhile, China's producer price index (PPI), which measures wholesale inflation, plunged 4.3 percent year on year in January, marking the 35th straight month of decline, pointing to continued weak market demand.

The Chinese economy grew 7.4 percent in 2014, the weakest annual expansion in 24 years, and a string of economic indicators in the first month of 2015, including manufacturing and trade data, all suggested continued weakness.

In the latest move to bolster growth, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, decided to lower reserve requirement ratio (RRR), the minimum level of reserves commercial banks must hold, by 50 basis points from February 5, the first universal RRR cut since May 2012.

Poverty Reduction

Impoverished population in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region saw a 30-percent drop on an annual basis in 2014, according to official statistics.

Some 130,000 people in Tibet were lifted out of poverty last year, said Hu Xinsheng, head of the Tibet Poverty Alleviation Office, on February 12.

China's rural poverty threshold is 2,300 yuan ($368) in annual net income.

Those living in poverty decreased from 830,000 in 2010 to 320,000 in 2014 in Tibet. People living in poverty now account for 13 percent of the population of the region's farming and pastoral areas, compared with 34 percent in 2010.

Hu said that Tibet channeled 1.77 billion yuan ($284 million) into poverty reduction efforts in 2014, up 13 percent year on year.

This year, 1.88 billion yuan ($301 million) will be invested by the regional government to lift another 80,000 people out of poverty, he added.

Higher Standards

Foreign-invested enterprises will be given more chances to join China in setting up standards with the aim to make Chinese products more competitive and popular internationally, said the Chinese Government.

"To push the Chinese economy to a higher level, the key lies in improving products and services," said a statement released after an executive meeting of the State Council, China's cabinet, on February 11.

China will improve laws and regulations related to standardization, striving for a guarantee for quality, according to the document. The government will revise current national, local and industrial standards. In areas such as health, safety and environmental protection, a unified mandatory national standard will be introduced.

Associations, commerce chambers and industrial technology alliances are encouraged to set standards that meet the needs of the market and innovation, it added.