Residents were more acquainted with the concept of wealth management and fund investment products became popular. The survey revealed that 18.5 percent chose "intending to buy stocks or fund products" as an outlet of their disposable income, again a record high, while those choosing "saving in banks" accounted for 65.8 percent, down 2.4 percent and 3.6 percent than the third quarter of 2006 and fourth quarter of 2005 respectively, and 1.4 percent lower than the overall average of 67.2 percentage points ever since the first survey was taken years ago. Those choosing "fund products" as an investment channel increased from 6.7 percent in the previous quarter to 10 percent this quarter, up 3.3 percent year on year. Total assets over fund products ranked second to bank savings as a value storage means of urban households.

The survey also detected some changes in the purposes of savings by residents. The share of the "traditional" incentives for saving such as education, pension and medical expense, compensation for unemployment and loss from accidents, declined for the first time. These three types accounted for 4.3 percent, 1.2 percent and 2.4 percent less than those in the previous quarter.

In addition, residents' inclination toward purchasing houses rose slightly. Those that expressed the wish to buy a house within the coming three months were up 0.3 percent over the previous quarter. But the proportion of population in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing, the four municipalities, shrank for the second month in a row. Provincial capitals like Changchun, Zhengzhou, Nanchang, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Guiyang, Kunming and Xining saw a higher proportion of their residents willing to buy houses. Yearly, resident's house-buying inclinations have declined from the average 19.7 percent for 2005 to 17.8 percent last year.

The survey was conducted by the People's Bank of China in 50 large, medium- and small cities and 20,000 questionnaires were collected in November.

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