Shanghai consumer, investor confidence stay positive in Q3

Shanghai's consumer and investor confidence fell in the third quarter but stayed generally positive, according to a latest survey.

The Shanghai University of Finance and Economics' quarterly Consumer Confidence in Shanghai Index fell 2 points from the second quarter of 2022 to 102.5 points, extending the quarter-on-quarter declines but at a much slower pace, and was 17.5 points lower than a year earlier.

The university's Index of Investor Confidence was 102.53 points, down 5.47 points from the previous quarter and 18.11 points lower from the same period last year.

For both indices, a reading above 100 signifies optimism while one below 100 indicates pessimism.

The domestic economy is still facing many challenges, such as structural transformation of growth, while dealing with the pressures of recurring pandemic outbreaks, which are reflected in the third quarter findings, Xu Guoxiang, director of the university's Applied Statistics Research Center, said on Wednesday.

He was speaking along with professor Wu Chunjie and associate professor Cui Chang of the university.

The cooling foreign demand and the trend of weak economic data in developed economies such as the United States and countries in Europe have also had a certain influence on the domestic economy, Xu pointed out.

"But it should be noted that Shanghai's overall economic indicators have been steadily recovering, while innovation and transformation are being actively promoted, leading to a stabilizing trend of the main indices in this survey."

The sub-index for consumers' evaluation of Shanghai's economy fell 7.5 points from the second quarter to 116.6 points.

Their evaluation index of income rebounded 3.3 points quarter on quarter to 94.3 points but is still at historically low levels, while the evaluation index of employment rose 4 points to return to positive territory.

The sub-index of purchase intentions was among those changing the least, shedding 3.7 points from the previous quarter to 86 points in July-September.

Among them, the index of home-buying intentions remained generally flat, edging down 0.3 points on the quarter while rising 13.3 points from a year earlier, albeit still lower than the figure at the end of last year.

The intention to buy cars and durables, meanwhile, saw quarter-on-quarter declines of 6.2 points and 4.6 points, respectively.

Xu suggested the city should make further efforts to boost consumption to drive up economic growth, and to promote sci-tech innovation to accelerate the construction of a sci-tech center.

He also called for stepping up bailouts of enterprises and encouraging innovation in business patterns, to help reduce the burden and increase the vitality of companies, thus adding more jobs and providing more entrepreneurial opportunities.