More Chinese residents still prefer savings to spending, some 28.6 percent of people believe spending is worthwhile, down 0.9 percentage point and 1.8 percentage points against last quarter and a year ago respectively, a record low in history, according to a quarterly survey released by People's Bank of China.

According to the central bank's analysis, there are two major reasons leading to the drop in resident's desire for spending. Residents are worried about the uncertainty of future expenditure.

The survey indicates education expense has long been the first priority among all the saving motives, followed by pension, housing and accidents prevention, the four items account for 56.5% in the quarter.

Enthusiasm for real estate and auto purchases cooled down since 2005 after the two reached climax from 2002 to 2004.

The survey shows 18.2 percent of people plan to buy house in three months, down 1 percentage point from a quarter ago and 3.8 percentage points from a year ago, also a record low.

About 9.8 percent of the surveyed want to buy cars in next three months, down 0.1 percentage point and 1.5 percentage points respectively.

Meanwhile, more residents are confident in securities, about 8 percent of the surveyed prefer buying stocks or funds, up 2.9 percentage points from a quarter ago and 1.8 percentage points from the same period of last year.

The survey also shows residents are more satisfied with current commodity prices, but price hike is estimated to decline by a large margin.

By People's Daily Online