Less confident outlook stays
By Wang Yanlin |
July 27, 2011, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SHANGHAI consumers were less confident in the city's economic outlook in the second quarter, and the city's inflation at a two-year high forced nearly half of its residents to cut back on their on daily consumption, according to an index by the Shanghai Statistics Bureau.
The Shanghai Consumer Confidence Index, a general gauge of consumer sentiment on spending, fell 1.3 points from the first three months to 107.7 in the second quarter. The reading was also the lowest in seven quarters. The index dropped 5.7 points from a year earlier. A reading above 100 signals optimism.
"The index's decline is mainly triggered by people's dwindling confidence in the overall economy, employment, household income and quality of life," the bureau said in a survey report yesterday. "Consumers are increasingly cautious about spending, and their willingness to purchase big items like properties and cars continues to be low."
The components in the confidence index all fell, led by a 2.9-point cut in people's willingness to buy properties, which slumped to 46.8 in the April-June period.
Shanghai's economic growth is weakening, Cai Xuchu, spokesman of the bureau, said last week. "It is a result of active industrial restructuring against the backdrop of tightening polices, higher prices and uncertainties on the global market," Cui said.
The city's economy grew 8.4 percent from a year earlier to 916.4 billion yuan (US$142 billion) in the first six months, with second-quarter growth easing slightly to 8.4 percent from 8.5 percent in the first three months and 9.9 percent last year.
Meanwhile, Shanghai's consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, rose to a two-year high of 5.9 percent in June. The CPI was at 5 percent in the first half of the year.
The bureau's report disclosed that 50.4 percent of the survey respondents say the city's inflation influenced their lives "fairly seriously," and another 7.4 percent said it affected them "very seriously."
"Nearly half of the residents curbed their daily spending or bought less expensive products as substitutes to counter price rises," the report said.
The Shanghai Consumer Confidence Index, a general gauge of consumer sentiment on spending, fell 1.3 points from the first three months to 107.7 in the second quarter. The reading was also the lowest in seven quarters. The index dropped 5.7 points from a year earlier. A reading above 100 signals optimism.
"The index's decline is mainly triggered by people's dwindling confidence in the overall economy, employment, household income and quality of life," the bureau said in a survey report yesterday. "Consumers are increasingly cautious about spending, and their willingness to purchase big items like properties and cars continues to be low."
The components in the confidence index all fell, led by a 2.9-point cut in people's willingness to buy properties, which slumped to 46.8 in the April-June period.
Shanghai's economic growth is weakening, Cai Xuchu, spokesman of the bureau, said last week. "It is a result of active industrial restructuring against the backdrop of tightening polices, higher prices and uncertainties on the global market," Cui said.
The city's economy grew 8.4 percent from a year earlier to 916.4 billion yuan (US$142 billion) in the first six months, with second-quarter growth easing slightly to 8.4 percent from 8.5 percent in the first three months and 9.9 percent last year.
Meanwhile, Shanghai's consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, rose to a two-year high of 5.9 percent in June. The CPI was at 5 percent in the first half of the year.
The bureau's report disclosed that 50.4 percent of the survey respondents say the city's inflation influenced their lives "fairly seriously," and another 7.4 percent said it affected them "very seriously."
"Nearly half of the residents curbed their daily spending or bought less expensive products as substitutes to counter price rises," the report said.
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