The month before the Spring Festival is a feverish and festive shopping season for Chinese people. It is a gala for merchants, but shoppers find they are spending money like water.
In January, the consumer price index (CPI) of residents in the province rose by 5.1% as compared with the same period last year, or 0.2% higher than in December. Prices of the eight categories of consumer goods and service items under survey all climbed, with food (rising by 10.4%) and housing (rising by 8.0%) taking the lead.