CHINA does not need administrative tools to intervene in consumer prices at present, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planner, said yesterday.

"The measures we are taking now are economic policies and legal means," Zhou Wangjun, deputy director of NDRC's pricing department, told China National Radio.

Zhou cited measures that included incentives to help develop the agricultural sector, subsidies to low-income households, increasing supplies as well as a crackdown on hoarding and speculation.