A drop in headline-hogging inflation figures is the top of the
New Year wish list for Chinese, a recent poll shows.
Of the 3,200 people who participated in an online poll to choose
their wishes from 21 options, four in five chose "drop in consumer
price index (CPI)" as their foremost.
"You may not run faster than Liu Xiang, but your assets have to
grow faster than CPI," said a netizen - quoting a slogan by
newly-launched Moneyweek magazine - in the "Top New Year
Wishes" poll conducted by the popular news portal QQ.com and
China Youth Daily.
CPI - a key gauge of inflation - rose to an 11-year high of 6.9
percent in November last year, spurred mainly by increases in food
prices.
Despite an 8 percent rise in per capita net income, the highest
since 1997, two in three urbanites and nearly three in five rural
residents surveyed by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said
price hikes were "the social issue of highest concern" last
year.
Options given by the poll organizers included broad topics such
as food safety and environment protection and hot stories like the
launch of the Chang'e I lunar orbiter.
A successful Summer Olympics in Beijing followed the CPI drop as
the second most commonly shared wish, with 60 percent choosing the
option.
The sentiment was also shared by some people overseas.
In an online poll conducted by the China Daily website, a
European netizen named "rockmyword" said: "I wish the best for (the
Games) because I love Beijing. I love watching track, gymnastics
and swimming events."
"Effective control of pollution and corruption" was also high on
the list with two in five people voting for the two options.
Beating other broad issues such as better employment, wishes for
higher stock earnings jumped into the top 10 wishes.
The ranking indicates a large number of Chinese have bought
stocks during the bull market, said the poll organizer. The
Shanghai stock market soared 97 percent last year after more than
doubling in value the previous year.
(China Daily January 7, 2008)
