By Tu Lei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-09-10 14:08

Rapid consumer price index (CPI) growth is forcing some couples to move their wedding date ahead in search of lower wedding costs, Shanghai Youth Daily said in a recent report. 

Liang and her fiancé had planned to get married next year, but they decided to reschedule their wedding date earlier, to this November. 

Liang said she is afraid the wedding costs next year will be higher because the CPI keeps rising on food price spikes. 

They have poured all their savings in a house where they will live after the marriage.  

Some wedding planners received more orders in the second half of this year compared with the first half, according to the report.  

“Couples who advance their wedding date may be feeling coming economic pressure,” said Wang Huiqun, director of Chuanqi Wedding Culture Communication Center in Shanghai.  

Cao Zhonghua, president of the Shanghai Wedding Association, said some hotels providing wedding dinners only promised to make a reservation but not informed their clients of the prices when receiving earnest money, which may bring the possibility of price hikes.  

Since the end of this April, some housing prices in Shanghai went up 20 percent. Housing prices average 11,000 yuan (US$1,459.27) per square meter.

Figures from the National Development and Reform Commission said prices of fresh vegetables and cooking oil are continuing to rise this August nationwide in 36 big and medium-sized cities.  

The CPI - a key gauge of inflation - hit a 10-year monthly growth high of 5.6 percent in July and rose by an average of 3.5 percent in the first seven months of the year, of which 2.9 percentage points were contributed by rising food costs.