Chinese citizens feel price pressure
中國公民感受物價上漲壓力

China's consumer price index rose 2.6% year on year in 2013, that was roughly the same level as 2012. But are Chinese residents feeling the price rises?

In order for people to observe how ordinary citizens feel about prices in China, one needs to look no further than food prices in the markets. As food prices fluctuated in 2013, prices for many raw food materials like cabbage and crucian were actually falling. However, when you ask how people feel about it, it's a different story. A lot of ordinary Chinese citizens would not say things were getting cheaper here.

"Things are a bit expensive this year I think," a Linyi citizen in Shandong Province says.

"Things are very expensive. These several items I bought cost me over 20 yuan. I remember when I was in high school they were worth just a few yuan at most," a Deyang citizen in Sichuan Province says.

What's are the reason behind this discrepancy in how people perceive prices? Experts say the answer lies in the way CPI is calculated. The index include price changes for 262 categories of consumer items in China. However, it does not include home prices.

"In recent years home purchase is the biggest expenditure for Chinese people. As home price has been rising for the past 10 years, it takes up the biggest part of people's lifetime consumption," Niu Li, Director for World Economics Research Office of State Information Center, says.

He said besides the burden of home prices, another reason why people think prices are too high is that the CPI index only indicate price rise compared to the year before, while citizens usually perceive the cumulative price change over many years.