Survey: Chinese consumer spending poised to grow
SHANGHAI, China (AP) _ In a rare bright sign for China's slowing economy, a new Gallup survey has found that many Chinese consumers plan to buy more televisions and other goods. Thirty percent of those surveyed said they will buy televisions over the next two years, up from 21 percent in 1997. Those planning to buy life insurance rose to 22 percent from 15 percent.
The results, released at a news conference Tuesday, are encouraging news for an economy where consumer demand, hurt by rising layoffs, has been so weak that prices have fallen for 23 months.
"Our data ... give some reason for hope over the next two years," said Richard W. Burkholder Jr., Gallup's director of worldwide operations.
Beijing has spent billions of dollars trying _ so far in vain _ to boost demand by putting money in consumers' pockets through civil servant pay increases and heavy spending on building projects.
Despite rising unemployment, the poll of 3,576 Chinese found they expected life to improve over the next 10 years, Burkholder said.
The survey, conducted over about six weeks by teams of Chinese researchers working for Princeton, N.J.-based Gallup, covered households in all of China's provinces and major cities, he said. Burkholder declined to release the full survey results, which he said would be sold to Gallup's corporate clients. No margin of error was provided.
The results confirmed a worrisome trend in China's rural areas. Reported income per person in the countryside _ home to some 800 million people _ has fallen to $870 from $996 in 1997, according to Gallup.
Beijing is increasingly concerned about potential unrest among struggling farmers. Chinese leaders have tried to pump up farm incomes by raising prices paid by state grain bureaus, but poor technology has left Chinese farms unproductive.
Gallup in 1994 became the first foreign survey firm allowed to operate in China. It has since been joined by dozens of Chinese and foreign-based competitors. |
