An index issued by the China UnionPay and Xinhua News Agency on Thursday showed China bankcard holders' consumption confidence dipped in the second quarter.

The index, Xinhua-UnionPay Bankcard Consumer Confidence Index (BCCI), was 85.58, slightly down from 86.95 in the first quarter or 86.59 in the second quarter of last year, but higher than 85.31in the third quarter in 2008 when the global financial crisis gripped the world.

The slight decrease of consumption confidence mainly resulted from the soaring real estate prices in the second quarter and booming capital markets, which funneled consumers' idle funds, said the index report.

Money spent by bankcard holders on real estate rose by 100 percent in the second quarter from the first quarter and the number of deals went up by 63 percent.

The China Unionpay, a national bank card association, and Xinhua News Agency joined hands to issue the first Xinhua-UnionPay BCCI index in April this year.

The index said the BCCI was 83.62 in the first quarter of 2008,86.59 in the second quarter, 85.31 in the third quarter, 86.88 in the fourth quarter and 86.95 in the first quarter of 2009.

Usually the more consumers spend on non-necessities, excluding foods, clothes, everyday goods and others, the more they are confident of economy. The Xinhua-UnionPay BCCI index focuses on consumers' spending on non-necessities.

(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2009)