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China will enhance regulating its property market in 2011 and strengthen implementation of the tightening measures already unveiled by the government, a senior official said Wednesday.

Jiang Weixin, minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at a national work conference that China would clamp down on speculative home purchases and curb excessive growth in property prices next year.

The country has rolled out a string of tightening measures to cool the real estate market in 2010, including suspending mortgages for third-home purchases, speeding up trials of property taxes and raising down payment requirements for first-home buyers, which have “helped contain speculative demand to some extent”, Jiang said.

Further, Jiang noted that the ministry would assess local governments’ performances in stabilizing property prices to ensure central government measures are properly implemented.

China will also continue to increase the land supply available for residential property and strengthen management of the Public Housing Fund in 2011.

The country built 5.9 million units of affordable housing and renovated 1.36 million dangerous rural dwellings in 2010, compared with the annual target of 5.8 million units and 1.2 units, respectively, Jiang said.

Further, China will increase the supply of affordable housing, renovate more shantytowns and develop public rental housing to solve the housing problem of middle- and low-income earners, the newly-employed and migrant workers, Jiang said.

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Amid the backdrop of the rising Brazilian currency, the real, against the yuan, Brazil increased tariffs on toy imports from China by 15 percent on Wednesday.

It’s the third time in eight days that the South American nation has launched a trade-remedy case against Chinese imports.

The measure aims to help Brazilian toy manufacturers gain a competitive edge, as China accounts for as much as 90 percent of the nation’s total toy imports. However, the move will not hurt Chinese manufacturers too badly, as the industry’s export volume to Brazil is still small, said experts.

According to the Brazilian Foreign Trade Chamber, the South American country has raised duties from 20 percent to 35 percent on 14 types of toys including dolls, puzzles, tricycles and electric trains.

The tariffs will be effective by the end of 2011.

The move comes in response to a request from Brazilian toymakers for help in fending off the fierce competition posed by the influx of Chinese imports.

The tariff increase is the third time Brazil has initiated a trade-remedy case against China during the past eight days.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Brazil announced it started anti-dumping investigations into imports of Chinese seamless steel pipes on Dec 22, and non-stainless steel household vessels on Dec 24.

Meanwhile, on Dec 21, the Brazilian Citric Acid Industry Association applied to its government to launch an investigation into Chinese imports of the acid.

“It is an unavoidable trend that Brazil is launching more trade-remedy cases against China, as they are competing at the same level in many sectors. China must be fully prepared for that,” said He Weiwen, a council member of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies.

China supplies more than 90 percent of Brazil’s toy imports, and figures from the Ministry of Trade of Brazil show that they totaled imported toys worth $290 million between January and November.

But Brazil is still a small market for Chinese exporters. According to China’s General Administration of Customs, the value of China’s exports of toys and parts grew by 30.3 percent to $9.34 billion during the first 11 months of this year, only 3 percent of which went to Brazil.

The United States and European Union are China’s top two export markets for toys, buying about 60 percent of the total output from Chinese factories. This year, the emerging markets of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) rose to the fifth-largest export market for China, replacing Canada.

As the developed nations established more trade barriers for imports of toys and demand shrinks, Chinese toy makers have started to cast their eyes on the emerging markets, including Brazil, Russia and ASEAN.

According to a study published this month by Brazil’s State Development Bank, imports of Chinese goods in the 12 months through August increased 37 percent to $21.4 billion, from $15 billion in the whole of 2009.

In August, the Brazilian government began to reduce import tariffs on toy parts and raw materials from 20 percent to 2 percent, in a bid to enhance the competitiveness of its domestic producers.

It is estimated toy sales in Brazil will reach $1.8 billion this year, 49 percent of which will come from products made abroad.

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Price stability should always be the main target of China’s monetary policy, a central bank official said Wednesday.

Sheng Songcheng, director of the Financial Survey and Statistics Department of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), wrote in a statement posted on the website of the PBOC, saying that the central bank may place more emphasis on economic growth during harsh economic days.

“But in the long run, keeping prices stable is always the main target of the country’s monetary policy,” he said.

China announced earlier this month that it would shift to a prudent monetary policy in 2011 from its moderately loose stance.

Sheng said China should take asset prices into consideration when formulating monetary policy, as housing and stocks have become important parts of residents’ personal property.

Further, Sheng said the country should speed up the pace of interest rate liberalization by adopting a more market-based interest rate policy, including encouraging financ

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