Consumer index hits new high in Q4

China's consumer confidence index (CCI) hit its highest level for last year in the fourth quarter while growth of retail sales declined in most industries, a survey showed Wednesday.

The country's CCI reached 111 in the fourth quarter of 2013, 1 point higher than the previous quarter and 5 points higher than the same time period of 2012, according to a quarterly survey released Wednesday by global information company Nielsen.

"Strong consumer confidence was driven by the -rebound of job prospects in the fourth quarter and continuous enhancement in willingness to spend," Patrick Dodd, managing director of Nielsen China, said at the release of the report.

Consumer confidence levels above a baseline of 100 indicate optimism, while levels below 100 indicate pessimism.

"As 2014 progresses, a brighter outlook is -expected. The key challenges are translating this confidence into actual purchase power, and further improving the domestic consumption's contribution to the overall GDP by creating more demand through deeper understanding of Chinese consumers," said Yan Xuan, president of Nielsen Greater China.

Despite the strong consumer confidence, the growth of national retail sales declined for most industries in 2013.

Sales of fast-moving consumer goods have slowed down to single-digit growth and closed at 7 percent in the fourth quarter, the survey said.

The survey came after official data showed in January that China's retail sales, a measure of consumer spending, grew 13.1 percent year-on-year in 2013, declining from the 14.3 percent growth posted in 2012.

The contribution of consumer spending to GDP growth fell by 1.8 percentage points from the previous year, to 50 percent in 2013, official data showed.

"The decline of consumption last year was partly due to the government's anti-corruption campaigns and crackdown on extravagant official spending, but that is not necessarily a bad thing," Zhang Bin, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times Wednesday.

To boost consumption and raise consumption's contribution to GDP growth, the country needs to encourage private investment and raise the people's income level, Zhang said.