Chinese unhappy with price levels: survey

BEIJING - Chinese urbanites are unhappy with the price of goods and services, a central bank survey showed Thursday.

The People's Bank of China found in its latest quarterly survey of urban bank users that 61.6 percent thought prices in the fourth quarter were "high and unendurable," up 1.8 percentage points from the third quarter.

The consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, grew 3 percent year on year in November, down from 3.2 percent in October, according to National Bureau of Statistics figures.

The survey found that 47.4 percent of urban residents prefer putting money in banks (deposits, investments in bonds and stocks) and 19.2 percent are inclined to consume more.

As for investment options, "funds and other wealth management products" was the top priority for more than a quarter of respondents, followed by "property" for 17.9 percent and the "equity market" for 15.9 percent.

The survey found 66.5 percent felt house prices in the fourth quarter were "too high," 1.1 percentage points lower than the previous quarter.

More than 47 percent of respondents anticipate home prices to remain stable in the first quarter of 2014 and 32.5 percent believe costs will continue to rise, while 7.5 percent expect a decline in prices, the survey said.

The central bank carried out the quarterly survey among 20,000 urban bank users in 50 major cities.