Price rises prickle urbanites
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-06-16 09:52
A People's Bank of China survey published Thursday shows urban households are
strongly sensitive to price rises and are pessimistic about inflation in the
next quarter.
The survey showed the urban household satisfaction index
for current price levels in the second quarter was minus 12.1 percent, down
three percentage points over the previous quarter.
Of the total, 24.4
percent of households considered prices to be "rather high and unacceptable", up
2.3 percentage points, bucking the trend that had seen the percentage fall
steadily from 25.1 percent in the third quarter last year to 22.1 percent in the
first quarter this year.
Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics
showed China's Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.2 percent in April and 1.4
percent in May year on year. In addition, the price of processed fuel oil rose
steadily and house prices remained high, contributing to the significant drop in
the household satisfaction index.
The survey also showed urbanites were
more pessimistic about price rises with the household expectation index of
future price movements rising 12.3 percentage points to 31.1 percent.
They also believed their incomes had decreased in real terms with the
household income sentiment index at 17 percent, down 5.1 percentage points from
the previous quarter.
However, the future income confidence index was
20.3 percent, a rise of 1.3 percentage points quarter on quarter and 3.1
percentage points year on year.
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