More Chinese say prices tolerable

Fewer Chinese consumers now think prices are unacceptably high compared with three months ago. This is the finding of a quarterly central bank survey released on Wednesday.

The poll of almost 20 thousand households was carried out in 49 cities in May. 45 percent of respondents said current prices were far too high, down from a 49 percent who answered that way in the previous poll in March. Half of the people surveyed expected inflation to increase in the coming month.

China's consumer price index jumped 7.7 percent year on year in May, lower than April's 8.5 percent. Only 16 percent of respondents said they were willing to invest in stocks or mutual funds, down from the 27 percent in the previous poll.