Woeful return on 44-year-old deposit has social media users asking: What is the yuan really worth?
People question how 1,200 yuan banked in 1973 could be worth only 2,684 yuan in today’s money
When a state bank revealed this week that the value of a long-forgotten 1,200 yuan deposit certificate from 44 years ago had grown to just 2,684 yuan, it caused a sensation on social media.
Internet users swung into action reviewing the history of price changes over four decades in China. Comparisons were made between what you could buy with 1,200 yuan (equivalent to about US$600 at the time) in 1973 versus what 2,684 yuan (US$400 at current rates) gets you in today’s China.
The money was deposited into a savings account in March 1973 at a Xiamen branch of the People’s Bank of China, the country’s only bank at the time, the local Strait Herald newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The certificate was apparently forgotten about and only recently rediscovered. But when its owner, a woman surnamed Chen, went to cash it in – expecting a windfall – at a state bank in the coastal city in Fujian, the pitiful amount it returned in interest and principal came as a shock.
The tale, which was widely circulated online, is a window on how inflation has changed the value of money in China.
