Hedges are financial methods used to offset price changes.
A few countries have cut taxes on food or fuel to offset price rises.
A falling yen makes imported goods more expensive, helping to offset price declines at home.
A combination of offset quota and offset price collar leads to investment patterns that are almost identical to a regime without access to offsets.
Moreover, drug companies would have to pay rebates to the state to offset price increases that exceed the rate of inflation.
The relatively slow increase of prices in the services sector, and the decline in apparel prices, were helping to offset price rises elsewhere, Dan Greenhaus, the chief economic strategist for Miller Tabak & Company, said in a research note.
State-controlled media quoted Chen Tonghai, the chairman of Sinopec, a state-owned oil producer and refiner, as saying that the tax could be used to boost subsidies for "weak communities" to offset price increases.China worries about the impact of rising prices on a wide range of consumers, but peasants and taxi drivers are foremost among them.
Like the steel industry, natural resources giants want to control supplies to offset price fluctuations and strengthen their vertical integration.
"Over this decade, inflation has more than offset price gains and left much of the industry struggling to create value.
Unit growth has thus far offset price declines in the NAND market, but that will cease to be the case if the supply and demand situation tips unfavorably.
Top U.S. bookseller Barnes & Noble reported a quarterly profit well above Wall Street estimates as its online arm cut losses and tighter expense control offset price cuts on a new Harry Potter title.
