China’s 99% Still Occupied With Inflation
China’s 99% Still Occupied With Inflation
Date: December 21, 2011, 9:31 PM HKT
Who knows what Chinese people want?
In the absence of democratic elections, it’s difficult to tell what the policy preferences of China’s 1.3 billion population is. But as a distant second best, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences conducts an annual survey of urban residents to find out what’s yanking their chain. The results of this year’s survey have now been published.
No surprise over what led the list in 2011—inflation. For the second year in a row, rising consumer prices topped the list of concerns for the 3,173 urban residents who participated in the survey; 61% of respondents cited it as a top concern, up from 49% in 2010.
The high price of housing is next on the list of what really got urban residents’ goat this year, with 54% considering it a top concern. That’s up from 39% in 2010, despite continued efforts by the government to deflate the property bubble. Home prices have now have leveled off, but it looks like it will take actual falls to appease angry urbanites.
That’s bad news for China’s real-estate developers, who can look forward to continued controls denting sales and profits for their companies. But there’s a silver lining for China’s property barons and other members of the Chinese 1%: The gap between rich and poor remains off the radar as a problem for the urban population. Just 13.5% of respondents identified it as a major problem, down from 13.9% in 2010. Developers might not get any richer, but at least there won’t be an angry mob at the door demanding redistribution of their existing wealth.
Written by Tom Orlik
Dr. Chao Yuang Shiang
22-December-2011 |
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