The government, presidential office and ruling party held a policy consultation meeting on Sunday to discuss measures to stabilize prices ahead of the lunar New Year holidays in mid-February.

The first such meeting in the new year was attended by top officials, including Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, presidential Chief of Staff Lee Kwan-sup and ruling People Power Party’s interim leader Han Dong-hoon.

In the meeting, the ruling bloc agreed to keep the average prices of highly-demanded products for the holiday below the levels of last year.

The ruling camp plans to sharply increase the supply of 16 food products with high demand ahead of the holiday and raise the government's discount rate from 20 to 30 percent to stabilize prices.

The government also plans to provide up to a 30 percent discount on train tickets for those who travel on less crowded routes during the holiday and reduce interests by up to one-point-five-million won for 400-thouand small business owners who took out loans from non-banking financial institutions.

PPP interim chief Han, who attended the meeting for the first time since he took office, said that the party, government and the presidential office work as one to produce realistic measures for people’s livelihoods.