CHINA

Inflation Falls Below 15%: The State Statistics Bureau said retail prices in July rose 14.6% from a year ago, the first time this year that retail inflation dropped below the 1995 target level. China has been battling inflation, a normal byproduct of a fast-growing economy, for two years, and there have been signs recently that its price controls on food and limits on property development credit are paying off. But Fan Gang, deputy director of the Institute of Economics at the government-backed China Academy of Social Sciences, said double-digit inflation will continue for the next couple of years. The government is studying what level of inflation China’s residents can bear, Fan said, but added that with 10% annual economic growth, 15% inflation “would be ideal.”