Urbanites worry about rising living cost
By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-06-20 08:53
It's not just rising petrol and housing prices that people are complaining
about. The rising cost of daily items is also eating into wallets.
One
in four urbanites think current goods and service prices in China are "rather
high and unacceptable," according to a national survey conducted by the People's
Bank of China.
The quarterly survey interviewed 20,000 households in 50
cities in May.
Economists believe curbing inflation should be one of the
central government's priorities, together with checking investment sprees by
local governments.
The average price of goods in May increased by 0.6
per cent on April, a rise of 1.5 per cent year-on-year.
Zha Ying, a
30-year-old housewife in the northern Beijing suburbs, is feeling the pinch.
"In addition to a rising petrol bill, I'm also quite sensitive to fruit
prices," said Zha. Watermelons cost 3 yuan (37 US cents) per kilo where she
lives, twice as expensive as last year.
The National Bureau of
Statistics said average fruit prices edged up 4.7 per cent in May compared
to April, a rise of 13.9 per cent year-on-year.
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