
Photo: VCG
China’s urban residents were more inclined to save or invest their money than to spend it in the first quarter of 2019, according to quarterly figures from the central bank released Friday.
Of the 20,000 depositors across 50 Chinese cities surveyed by the People’s Bank of China in the most recent quarter, 25.9% said they were more inclined to spend, down 2.8 percentage points from the previous quarter, while 45% said they were more inclined to save and 29.2% were more inclined to invest, up 0.9 and 1.9 percentage points from the previous quarter respectively.
The survey also asked respondents how they felt about employment.
The bank’s Employment Sentiment Index reading was 45.8% in the first quarter, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous quarter but still under 50%, which indicates that overall sentiment is still negative. Only 16.3% of respondents thought the employment situation was good and that it was easy to find jobs, while 51.9% thought it was average and 31.8% either thought the situation was poor or were unsure.