Bankcard consumer confidence drops slightly in August

BEIJING - Chinese consumer spending using bankcards dropped slightly in August illustrating stable consumer confidence, according to the Bankcard Consumer Confidence Index (BCCI) released on Monday.

The BCCI, compiled by the Xinhua News Agency and China UnionPay, a national bank card association, dropped 0.03 points to 86.73 in August from July.

The index was up 0.52 points on a year-on-year basis, according to the BCCI report.

The value of transactions recorded at supermarkets took a higher share of consumption in August, about 0.2 percentage points up from July.

Consumers reduced spending in areas including air, tourism agencies and tourist sites as summer holidays ended in August, said the report.

With the rising price of gold and jewelry, the value of transactions recorded at jewelry dropped 0.02 percentage points in August from July.

The consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.6 percent year on year in August, down from 2.7 percent in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale level, fell 1.6 percent in August from a year earlier, compared with a 2.3-percent drop in July, said the NBS.

The BCCI index, first released in April 2009, is based on bank card transaction data and analysis of structural changes in urban consumption.