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85.3% People Feel Financial Burden Heavier
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2006-03-21 10:02:37
chinanews.cn
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Information from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that from 1996 to 2005, there was no price hike and the growth rate of consumer price index was much lower that the growth rate of the per capita disposable income. However, a latest survey revealed that 85.3% people felt they had a heavier financial burden than a decade ago.
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About 7,625 people took the survey that was jointly launched by the Social Investigation Center of China Youth Daily and Sina website's News Center. While 78.8% of people in the survey said their income increased compared with a decade ago, 85.3% felt that their financial burden was more than before.
Professor Sun Liping from the Sociology Department of the Qsinghua University once said that in China, a notable phenomenon was that scholars' analyzing results based on micro figures were usually far different from impressions of the general public about their daily life. Usually, it is not that the public is wrong, but because the way these micro figures were collected is not correct. The consumption price index (CPI) was a case in example.
The data collecting methods used for determining CPI were set twenty years ago. During this period, great changes have taken place in people's consumption structure and types of goods that they buy. Twenty years ago, food comprised one-third proportion of the CPI figure while now, they account for only a fraction of it. On the other hand, consumption status in medical goods, education and telecommunication do not reflect the real picture at all. The soaring housing prices in recent years are even excluded from CPI calculation according to relative "international norms".
According to professor Sun, such miscalculation contributed to the phenomenon that while statistics showed a stagger state in consumption prices, people on the contrary felt that their life burden was much heavier than before, since major consumption items, such as education, healthcare services, housing and pension fees have all increased several times or even dozens of times more than before.
The survey result proves his opinion. According to the survey, housing, education and healthcare services are ranked as the top three sectors that people spend their money most. These are also the very three sectors that people feel the greatest rate of increase.
It is unrealistic to think that the problem can be solved with more personal savings. And fortunately, the government doesn't avoid solving these problems that are closely linked with the interests of the general public. In recent years, the government has taken a series of measures in order to cool down the housing prices, to tackle the problem of charging education fees at one's discretion, and to carry out the reform in medical service system.
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