A People's Bank of China survey published Thursday shows urban households are strongly sensitive to price rises and are pessimistic about inflation in the next quarter.

The survey showed the urban household satisfaction index for current price levels in the second quarter was minus 12.1 percent, down three percentage points over the previous quarter.

Of the total, 24.4 percent of households considered prices to be "rather high and unacceptable", up 2.3 percentage points, bucking the trend that had seen the percentage fall steadily from 25.1 percent in the third quarter last year to 22.1 percent in the first quarter this year.

Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed China's Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.2 percent in April and 1.4 percent in May year on year. In addition, the price of processed fuel oil rose steadily and house prices remained high, contributing to the significant drop in the household satisfaction index.

The survey also showed urbanites were more pessimistic about price rises with the household expectation index of future price movements rising 12.3 percentage points to 31.1 percent.

They also believed their incomes had decreased in real terms with the household income sentiment index at 17 percent, down 5.1 percentage points from the previous quarter.

However, the future income confidence index was 20.3 percent, a rise of 1.3 percentage points quarter on quarter and 3.1 percentage points year on year.

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