BEIJING — China's top economic planner said on July 19 that it would step up monitoring of commodity prices and organize follow-up releases of national reserves including copper, aluminum and zinc.

As part of efforts to alleviate burdens on businesses over soaring raw material costs, China released 100,000 tons of copper, aluminum and zinc from its national reserves earlier this month to maintain market order.

The move has achieved initial success as the commodity prices had gradually retreated by around 3 percent to 14 percent from the highest level recorded in May, pulling down the month-on-month gain of producer prices by 1.3 percentage points in June, according to Wan Jingsong, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission.

"As measures aimed at ensuring supplies and stabilizing prices continue to bear fruits, prices of commodities will gradually return to normal levels," said Wan.

The regulator pledged to closely monitor price changes in the market and strengthen coordinated supervision to crack down on illegal activities.