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Gloomy on incomes, Chinese choose to save

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-12 15:50

BEIJING -- A record number of Chinese urban residents want to save, not spend, as they have turned increasingly gloomy about their incomes, a central bank survey released on Friday showed.

Related readings: China's May exports plunge 26.4% May bank loans rise to 664.5b yuan Retail sales, industrial output jump Retail, wholesale prices may dipApril retail sales slip 6.9% Retail sales jump, factory output slows Retail sales up 15.2%

The survey of urban residents conducted by the People's Bank of China, the central bank, in late May showed that 47 percent would like to save more, up 9.5 percent on the first quarter, and the highest since the survey began in 1999.

Only 15.1 percent said that they would spend more, down 14.6 percent from the previous quarter.

The strong preference for saving over consumption reflected a steep fall in the proportion of residents expecting their incomes to rise. Just 3.4 percent of respondents were optimistic about rising incomes, down 14.3 percentage points on the previous quarter.

Sentiment reflected in the survey was somewhat at odds with actual consumer spending in May. Official data released on Friday showed a 15.2 percent rise in retail sales from the year-ago period, accelerating from the pace set in March and April.

The government has been trying to stimulate domestic consumption to make economic growth more sustainable, but the survey showed that it faces a tough task in persuading people to spend more when the social security net is still flimsy and their economic outlook is gloomy.

Businesses

Businesses were more positive about the economic outlook for the first time in more than a year, a third and final central bank survey showed.

Its index for measuring firms' economic sentiment was -30.8 percent, up 7.8 percentage points on the first quarter and the first improvement in five quarters.

The index for domestic orders was -5.5 percent, up 5.2 percentage points on the previous survey. The export order index rose 7.5 percentage points to -10.3 percent.

The gauge for measuring satisfaction with bank loan availability hit its highest level on record, coming in at -13.1 percent, up 2.7 percentage points on the first quarter.

Chinese banks have issued 5.84 trillion yuan of local-currency loans in the first five months of the year, a record amount and already topping what the government had said was its minimum full-year target of 5 trillion yuan.

Bankers

Chinese banks are far more optimistic about the economy than they were three months ago, a separate central bank survey showed.

It said that a measure of bankers' confidence in the economy stood at 40.0 percent in the second quarter, up from 25.6 percent in the first quarter.

The proportion who thought that monetary policy would remain basically steady in the next three months rose to 57.4 percent, up 7.1 percentage points from the previous survey.

Bankers expected their business conditions to improve somewhat, with 64.3 percent saying that they were optimistic, up 2.8 percentage points from the first quarter.