UNILEVER develop China market with Chinese new portal - Sohu.com - on 2010.12.15

Consumer product giant Unilever Plc (UNc.AS) has raised prices on some of its products in China, three weeks after Beijing fined the company for talking about price increases, the local Guangzhou Daily reported on Wednesday.

Many supermarkets and shopping malls in China's southern city of Guangzhou were told by Unilever to raise prices for its Lux and Hazeline brands of shampoo and shower gel by around 10 percent, the newspaper said, citing supermarket workers and its own findings.

Unilever declined to comment on the report.

The reported price rises come just weeks after China's National Development and Reform Commission, the country's powerful planning agency, fined the firm 2 million yuan ($308,000) for talking about increasing prices.

The agency said then that comments by Unilever officials about price rises had "intensified inflationary expectations among consumers" and "seriously distorted market order."

Surging raw material costs have put the pressure on consumer product makers to increase store prices.

But with China's inflation running near three-year highs, Beijing is pulling out all stops to calm prices, including enforcing heavy-handed price controls. It has banned price hikes on products ranging from instant noodles to soaps.

Since October, Beijing has also raised interest rates four times and ordered banks to restrain lending.