The bank's third quarterly survey of 20,000 depositors in 50 mainland cities this year, found that 34.7 percent of respondents plan to put their money into bank accounts, a rise of 3.4 percentage points from a year ago, the PBOC announced yesterday.

"The will (to save) is the strongest in history," said the Chinese central bank in a statement.

Currently, the benchmark one-year interest rate on renminbi-denominated bank deposits stands at 1.98 percent, a standard welcomed by a growing number of survey respondents.

The survey, which was conducted in August, suggests that 28.2 percent of depositors are satisfied with the interest rates, compared with only 20.8 percent in the first quarter of 2000.

About 70 percent of those surveyed complained that interest rates are too low, down from 77.9 percent in the first quarter of 2000.

The survey also indicates fewer people are looking to buy new homes and cars.

Only 21.7 percent of those surveyed said they plan to buy a new home within the next three months, down 0.4 percent from the third quarter, while 9.4 percent said they will buy a car, a drop of 1.2 percent from three months ago.

"Mainland residents were less satisfied with commodity prices in the third quarter than they were a quarter earlier and they are expecting an upswing in prices in the following months," said the central bank in its statement.

The PBOC's price satisfaction index, which measures consumer response to the cost of cars, homes, food and clothing, dropped to 11.9 in the third quarter, down 3.1 from three months earlier.