劳动成本相对下降与近期我国物价回落

The Relative Drop of Labor Cost and the Fall of Price in Recent China

从1997年至2002年年底,我国零售物价指数出现了长达60个月的负增长,而与此同时宏观经济却保持高速度、高质量的增长,从而使此次物价回落出现了不同于以往的新情况。学术界和政府部门对此次物价回落的原因的主流解释尽管是中肯的,但仍然不足以说明上述新情况。经验和实证研究表明,近些年来我国二三产业劳动成本的相对下降,一方面使得物价温和、持续地下降,另一方面则有力地促进了经济总量的增长。

During the period from 1997 to the end of 2002 the retail price index in China declined continuously for 60 months, and meanwhile China's macro-economy maintained a high-speed and high-quality growth. As a result, the current fall of prices has shown some new characteristics different from those in the past. Although the dominant explanations of reasons for the fall given by economists and government officials are quite persuasive, they are insufficient to explain those new characteristics. Experiences and concrete researches show that a relative drop of labor cost in our country's secondary and tertiary industries in recent years has made prices drop mildly and continuously on the one hand, and has greatly accelerated the growth of aggregate economy on the other hand.