Income, willingness to spend rallying: PBOC

Chinese households are more willing to spend their savings with their income level rallying in the first quarter, adding to signs China's recovery of domestic demand is gaining traction, official data showed on Monday.

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said in a quarterly survey report on Monday that 58 percent of surveyed urban depositors were in favor of having more deposits in the first quarter, down 3.8 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2022.

Up to 23.2 percent of surveyed depositors said they preferred more consumption, up 0.5 percentage points from a quarter earlier, while 18.8 percent said they were inclined to make more investments, up by 3.3 percentage points from the previous quarter.

The Income Sentiment Index, which measures depositors' current income, increased 6.9 percentage points from a quarter earlier to 50.7 percent. The report said 15.9 percent of respondents saw their income rise in the first three months of the year, up 5 percentage points from the previous quarter.

Also rallying was the demand for loans. The Overall Loan Demand Index, a gauge of bankers' perception of loan demand, jumped to 78.4 percent in the first quarter, up 19 percentage points from the previous one.

Enterprise profits, however, may remain under pressure as the Profitability Index, which reflects entrepreneurs' perception of corporate profitability, came in at 47.8 percent in the first quarter. The reading was down by 2.2 percentage points quarter-on-quarter and was below the boom-bust mark of 50 percent.