Bachelors limit yuan appreciation

NEW YORK - The increasing number of bachelors in China limits appreciation of the yuan more than government officials do, according to a Columbia University economist.

About 12 million aspiring grooms are saving more money to help them compete in a "marriage market" with relatively fewer women. That's leading to lower demand for domestic goods and services and is limiting the rise of consumer prices, according to Shang-Jin Wei, director of Columbia's Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business.

China outstrips all countries with its sex ratio imbalance, according to research published in 2009 by the British Medical Journal, which estimated males under age 20 exceeded females by more than 32 million in 2005.