英语文摘:China's consumer confidence drops in June

BEIJING, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese spent less in June amid surging commodities prices and floods in many of the country's southern provinces, according to the latest reading of an index that gauges consumer confidence on Friday.

The Bankcard Consumer Confidence Index (BCCI), compiled by the Xinhua News Agency and the national bank card association China UnionPay, slid to 86.30 in June, down 0.09 points from May.

Compared with the same period last year, the June BCCI figure was 0.24 points higher. The index hit a record high of 86.89 in March.

The reading in June indicated Chinese bank card spending was affected by surging commodities prices and the floods in southern China.

Consumers also turned more conservative in spending due to sluggish performances of domestic stock markets and property markets in June.

China's month-on-month economic growth rate is likely to have slowed in June given signs that electricity demand declined remarkably that month and the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector dipped 1.8 percentage points for two months in a run to 52.1 percent in June.

Xinhua and UnionPay jointly started compiling the BCCI index in April 2009 based on bank card transaction data and analysis of structural changes in urban consumption.