PBOC survey: 53% of people said they were focused on 'more savings'

Fifty-three percent of urban depositors surveyed by the China's central bank, said they prefer to focus on their savings during these uncertain times.

China's central bank, People's Bank of China (PBOC) released survey results on Tuesday, with 53 percent of surveyed residents saying they were focused on "more savings" in the first quarter of 2020, up 7.3 percentage points from the previous quarter.

The survey was conducted among 20,000 urban depositors in 50 cities across China, against the backdrop of COVID-19, which has put the global economy at a near standstill.

The results also showed that 22.0 percent of resident's spending patterns were on "more consumption", down 6.0 percentage points from the previous quarter.

Speaking of areas where they would spend money on in the next 3 months, education ranks at the top selected by 31.5 percent residents, followed by health care at 29.4 percent, home purchases at 19.2 percent and tourism at 19.0 percent.

According to the survey, 25.0 percent of residents selected "more investment", down 1.3 percentage points from the previous quarter. Wealth management products from banks, securities and insurances companies, trust products and stocks are the top three investment methods preferred by residents. Among them, 48.6 percent of residents said they would choose wealth management products.

(Cover image via VCG)