Personal savings plummet in Shanghai
12 June 2007
Shanghai people are keeping in the country's financial institutions as they pulled $3.38 billion out of the banks in May, US$2.27 billion more than in April, according to a report released by the central bank's Shanghai headquarters, according to Xinhua (in Chinese). The drop was the biggest single-month decline in personal savings since 1999. The report says the hot stock market continues to divert away the savings of residents. Even though the central bank has raised interest rates by 0.54 percentage points this year, term deposits declined US$5.48 billion in May, according to the report. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index had increased by more than 50 percent in the first five months of the year.