Consumer confidence perks up

The consumption confidence of Chinese bankcard holders warmed up in the first quarter of this year and is expected to rebound further in the second quarter, according to statistics revealed yesterday by China UnionPay and Xinhua.

China UnionPay and Xinhua have recently launched an index, called BCCI, to track changes in the consumption behavior of Chinese bankcard holders. The index bounced back to 86.95 in the first quarter of this year from 86.88 in the last quarter of 2008.

The most depressed sentiment of Chinese bankcard holders was in the first quarter of last year, when the index fell to 83.62.