A growing number of residents are upset about increasing consumer prices in the fourth quarter, with almost half of the respondents feeling current prices are "high and unacceptable", according to the latest survey of the People's Bank of China.

About 46.8 percent of respondents said current prices are too high to accept, up from last quarter's 45.2 percent. The index measuring expectations for future price increases grew by 6.6 percentage points to 73.4 percent, officials from the central bank said yesterday when releasing the results of the quarterly survey among residents in 50 cities in the mainland.

A number of cities including Beijing, Jinan, Lanzhou and Ningbo are reportedly planning to raise water prices.

The price of 5-liter bottles of cooking oil, such as soybean oil and peanut oil, increased by 10 yuan on average this month, the China News Service reported yesterday. Some residents in cities such as Shenyang, Chengdu, Shanghai and Fuzhou, began hoarding cooking oil last week.

But officials from the National Development and Reform Commission said on Monday that serious inflation is unlikely to happen.

"I heard the news about people rushing to buy large amounts of edible oil, but I didn't follow them because I found the prices didn't increase a lot in the city. Some brands' prices even fell," said Li Guilian, a resident in Beijing.

A 5-liter bottle of Luhua brand peanut oil costs 89.8 yuan, up five yuan over last month. At the same time, a 5-liter bottle of Jinlongyu brand soybean oil costs 44.9 yuan, three yuan cheaper than last month, said a seller at a Shouhang supermarket chain store in the city's Huixinli community.

Residents are also unhappy about soaring housing prices. About 45.9 percent of respondents believe housing prices will rise in the future, a sharp jump compared to 16 percent holding the same view in the first quarter, according to the central bank's survey.

Meanwhile 42.1 percent of those polled said they will increase investments, much higher compared with the 29.1 percent in the beginning of the year. The majority of them plan to invest in real estate, mutual funds and stocks.

Some 13.9 percent of surveyed residents want to buy cars in the next three months, the highest percentage since the survey was started in 1999.

(China Daily December 18, 2009)