China's bankcard consumer confidence rises in January

Chinese consumers using bank cards spent their money more confidently in January than a month earlier, according to the Bankcard Consumer Confidence Index (BCCI) released on Friday. The BCCI, compiled by the Xinhua News Agency and China UnionPay, a national bank card association, rose 0.42 points to 87.10 in January from December. A higher reading in the index signals improvement in residents' confidence to consume. On a year-on-year basis, the index was up 0.32 points, according to the BCCI report. Consumers are more willing to spend before the Spring Festival, which will fall on Feb. 10 this year, the BCCI report said. The value of transactions recorded at supermarkets dropped 2.22 percentage points from December, although spending on catering, cigarettes, alcohol and airline tickets increased, according to the report. Inflation in China slowed to 2 percent in January, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday, down from a seven-month peak of 2.5 percent in December. The purchasing price index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale level, fell 1.6 percent year on year in January, the NBS said on Friday. The drop marked the 11th straight month of declines after the PPI fell in March 2012 for the first time since December 2009. The BCCI index, first released in April 2009, is based on bank card transaction data and analysis of structural changes in urban consumption.