Chinese consumer confidence falls in February

China's consumer confidence index dropped to 94.3 in February from 95.6 in January as the highest inflation in more than a decade dampened shoppers' enthusiasm, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.

The index stood at 96.9 in December and 96.0 in November, the statistics agency said on its Web site (www.stats.gov.cn).

The index distils consumers' attitudes towards current and future macroeconomic performance, their future earnings and plans for purchases of major durable goods into a composite figure.

The subindex representing consumer satisfaction with current economic performance fell to 90.5 in February from 91.2 in January, the agency said.

Another subindex, surveying consumers' expectations about the future economic outlook, decreased to 96.8 from 98.6 a month earlier.

Annual consumer inflation jumped in February to a nearly 12-year high of 8.7 percent, up from 7.1 percent in January.

Consumer confidence index:

Feb Jan Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun May Apr

94.3 95.6 96.9 96.0 96.5 97.0 97.3 96.7 97.5 96.7 96.2