Chinese Consumer Confidence Slides on Inflation Concerns

consumer confidence index fell in the fourth quarter to the lowest since 2009 as inflation accelerated in the fastest-growing major economy.

The measure was at 100, compared with 104 in the previous three months, Nielsen Co. and the Chinese statistics bureau’s Economic Monitoring and Analysis Center said in a statement released in Beijing。

In January, consumer prices rose 4.9 percent from a year earlier, up from a 4.6 percent gain in December.

Inflation topped the government’s 4 percent target for 2011 in each of the past four months even as the central bank raised interest rates and drained money from the financial system by boosting lenders’ reserve requirements. Rising commodity costs threaten to worsen price pressures after growth accelerated in the fourth quarter.