A NATIONAL Bureau of Statistics survey team in Shenzhen has called for more high-and-middle-income families to develop a habit of keeping an account of daily expenditure to provide basic data for the formulation of economic policies.
Low-income families were more cooperative than upper-income groups among 600 families randomly selected to keep a record of family spending on a daily basis, including dinners, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
The team would collect the records on the 20th of each month.
One-third of the sample families would be replaced every year, the paper said.
I earn around 1,000 yuan (US$152) each month and keeping accounts makes me more aware of my spending. It has become a habit, said Huang Guiyuan, whose family has been chosen to submit monthly records.
High-and-middle-income families, such as those in business, however, refused to cooperate when they were selected by the team and new subjects had to be chosen.
They were unwilling to reveal their incomes or spend time keeping records.
The situation was the same in Hong Kong, the paper said.
The survey leader, Xie Zuozheng, said the team would encourage more high-and-middle-income families to keep records.
(Li Hao)
