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Chinese urbanites have a greater tolerance to high prices, are prudent to making investment and more willing to buy insurance, according to a central bank survey in the second quarter. In a poll of 19,600 people from 49 cities nationwide, 45 percent said the current price level was too high to tolerate. The figure was 15.5 percentage points higher than the year-earlier level but 4.2 percentage points lower than the previous quarter. The quarterly decline was the first since the beginning of 2007. In addition, 51.6 percent said the price level was tolerable, up 4.1 percentage points from the previous quarter. Only 16.8 percent believed investing in stocks or mutual funds was lucrative, 10.8 percentage points lower than the quarter-earlier level. The good news for insurers was that more than 70 percent said in comparison with the previous quarter, they were now more willing to purchase policies. Approximately 65.7 percent said their income remained unchanged, up 6.8 percentage points than the quarter-earlier level, and 25.2 percent believed their income would increase in future, down 2.2 percentage points. The central bank also polled 5,530 entrepreneurs in another survey in the second quarter. It found 27 percent considered it difficult to get bank loans, the highest in the past three years; 36 percent regarded loan interest rates as high, the highest since 1997. Around 17.8 percent of entrepreneurs believed the national economy was overheating, down 1.6 percentage points from the previous quarter.
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