The Consumer Confidence Index dipped to 99.1 in December from 99.3 the previous month, remaining within the range between 95 and 100 seen in recent months and well above the recent trough of 88.6 seen in November 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis.
An index reading of 100 means optimism and pessimism are in balance. The November figure below 100 means pessimists outnumbered optimists, albeit only slightly.
The current index of consumer confidence rose for a fourth month to 105.1 from November's 104.3 while the index measuring current personal finances was up for a seventh straight month at 125.7, its highest reading since June 2007.
Future expectations for personal finances edged up to 129.7 in December from November's 128.1.
But other indications of consumer expectations marked a noted divergence with current conditions, and eziData ascribed this to government comments at the end of last year indicating that action will be taken to withdraw counter-crisis stimulus policies to clean up the excesses of 2009.
"Sooner or later the government will cancel the policies that help house prices to keep rising," said a respondent surnamed Ma in comments accompanying the release.
Concerns about the future were captured by the index measuring expectations of confidence which slipped lower for a third straight month to 95.8 from 96.6 and the recent peak of 100.6 recorded in September last year.
The index measuring business conditions in one year eased back to 127.2 from the previous month's 127.3 while those in five years tumbled to 138.9 from 143.5.
eziData's China Consumer Confidence Index is an independent barometer of China's consumer market climate produced by Hyperlink Research.
The index is based on a monthly survey of around 1,000 Chinese households via stratified random sampling in 30 representative cities across East, Middle and West China using the same methodology as is used by the University of Michigan in its survey of U.S. consumer confidence.
All data is collected via computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). Index of April 2007 survey is set as the benchmark (100).
