China consumer confidence drops in March

BEIJING — China's consumer confidence declined in March as holiday factors ebbed, according to an index released Wednesday.

The Bankcard Consumer Confidence Index (BCCI), compiled by Xinhua News Agency and China UnionPay, a financial services corporation, declined 1.77 points from February to 86.4 in March.

The index saw month-on-month rises in both January and February thanks to the New Year and Spring Festival holidays.

"The BCCI dropped last month as holiday factors ebbed and people's lives returned to normal," a report coming along with the index said.

Use of bank cards for travel dropped 7.3 percent from a month earlier and the share of travel spending in their total consumption dropped 0.97 percentage point.

The share of card payments in restaurants declined 0.51 percentage point, the report said.

The BCCI, first released in 2009, is based on bank card transaction data and analyses of changes in urban consumption.