1 of 2. A man walks in front of a company logo outside an Apple store in downtown Shanghai January 24, 2013.

SHANGHAI | Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:14pm EDT

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Technology giant Apple Inc and car maker Volkswagen AG were singled out by state-run China Central Television (CCTV) in its annual corporate malpractice expose.

On its "3.15" investigative special aired late on Friday, CCTV said that Chinese customers were not given the same post-sales service from Apple as it gave to users in other markets.

The report also said that the direct shift gearbox (DSG) transmission, a long-standing issue for Volkswagen, was causing cars to speed up or slow down during driving.

Volkswagen, which plans to almost double production capacity in China to 4 million cars in the next five years, promised action in response to the "3:15" show, whose name refers to the date of World Consumer Rights Day.

"We take this report very seriously and we will quickly make contact with our consumers to resolve the issue," it said on its official Chinese Weibo microblog.

In a statement Apple China said: "Our team is always striving to exceed our customers' expectations, and we take any customer concerns very seriously."

Apple looks to China not just as its main production base, but also to re-energize slowing growth, the result of rising smartphone penetration in mature markets. CEO Tim Cook sees the world's No. 2 economy as virgin expansion territory, and Apple singles out the region in every quarterly results report.

The television show has named and shamed a number of prominent Western companies in the past, hitting the sales and stocks of its targets in a retail market that is forecast to be the world's largest in three years.

Last year "3:15", one of the most widely watched shows in China, singled out fast-food giant McDonald's Corp and French hypermarket chain Carrefour SA for food safety violations.

The companies were forced to apologize and their shares slumped as China's army of half a billion microbloggers unleashed their anger online.

U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Korea's Kunho Tire Co Inc also have been blasted by state TV on Consumer Rights Day.

SAFETY CONCERNS

In December, a separate state television report triggered a food safety scare at Yum Brands Inc. restaurants, cutting its China same-restaurant sales by 20 percent in January and February.

Chinese companies have not been spared from scrutiny.

Public concern about food safety, pollution and corporate corruption has intensified over the last few years, after state media exposed malpractice at local firms including web search engine Baidu Inc and milk producer Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co.

"These TV exposes create the impression that you can't trust that brand," said Torsten Stocker, head of Greater China consumer practice at Monitor Deloitte. "If there's some smoke then maybe there's much bigger fire."

In a bid to preempt any negative publicity on Consumer Rights Day, some companies launched customer-friendly promotions ahead of the TV show. McDonald's will give out free breakfasts on Monday and Wal-Mart launched an "adopt-a-tree" campaign.

But some Chinese consumers said that the revelations from the "3.15" show would nonetheless have a significant impact on their choice of products in the future.

"I think the exposure of these companies makes them hard to believe again, at least I myself will boycott these companies," Sherry Chen, a clerk at DBS bank in Shanghai, told Reuters in the city's affluent financial district ahead of Friday's show.

The show also stirred up vitriol online in China. Within an hour of the broadcast, Apple had been mentioned 50,000 times on popular web microblog Weibo, China's version of Twitter which has more than half a billion users.

While many posts on Weibo were negative, the targeted companies may take solace that some users were not entirely convinced by the "3.15" show, which is a colorful mixture of under-cover footage and pro-consumer song-and-dance routines.

"Tonight's 3.15 hit out against corruption. But the most fraudulent thing at the end of the night was the show itself," posted Weibo user 'Soledad Horse'. "Oh CCTV, can't you try and find some intelligence from now on?"

(Additional reporting by Fang Yan; Editing by Miral Fahmy and Michael Roddy)

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A shopper walks down an aisle in a newly opened Walmart Neighborhood Market in Chicago in this September 21, 2011 file photo.

NEW YORK | Fri Jan 18, 2013 1:44pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumer sentiment unexpectedly deteriorated for a second straight month to its lowest in over a year in January, with many consumers citing fallout from the recent "fiscal cliff" debate in Washington, a survey released on Friday showed.

The sharp drop in sentiment over the last two months coincides with rancorous federal budget negotiations that have led to higher taxes for many Americans.

Just weeks after that deal, President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers are expected to enter another tough round of negotiations over spending cuts, which could dent consumer confidence still further.

"The handling of the fiscal cliff talks and the realization that paychecks are going to be smaller due to the sunset of the payroll tax holiday are probably weighing on consumer attitudes at the moment," said Thomas Simons, a money market economist at Jefferies & Co. in New York.

While most of the scheduled tax hikes and spending cuts forming the fiscal cliff were avoided when Congress struck a deal on January 1, most U.S. workers saw their take-home salary diminished by the expiry of two percentage-point cut in payroll taxes.

"With the debt ceiling yet to be tackled and more political acrimony on the way, we suspect that confidence has room to deteriorate further," Simons said.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's preliminary reading on the overall index of consumer sentiment came in at 71.3, down from 72.9 the month before. The index was at its lowest since December 2011. It was also below the median forecast of 75 among economists polled by Reuters.

"The most unique aspect of the early January data was that an all-time record number of consumers - 35 percent - negatively referred to the fiscal cliff negotiations," survey director Richard Curtin said in a statement.

"Importantly, the debt ceiling debate is still upcoming and could further weaken confidence," he said.

House Republicans have signaled they might support a short-term extension of U.S. borrowing authority when the government exhausts that capacity sometime between mid-February and early March. A failure by Congress to raise this debt ceiling could result in a market-rattling government default.

On Friday, Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the House would consider a bill next week to extend the debt limit by three months in order to force the Senate to pass a budget.

U.S. stocks remained little changed after the data. The S&P 500 .SPX hit a five-year high in the last session. But on Friday, a weak outlook from Intel (INTC.O) offset encouraging data out of China and a fourth-quarter profit at Morgan Stanley (MS.N).

So far there has been a disconnect between what consumers say and do. U.S. retail sales increased a better-than-expected 0.5 percent in December. But given the recent weakening in sentiment investors will be watching for any signs that spending is starting to slip.

"The impact on consumers will be from the hike in the social security tax. That is undoubtedly going to hit discretionary spending. So this may be a signal of things to come," said Michael Woolfolk, a senior currency strategist at BNY Mellon in New York.

The consumer survey's barometer of current economic conditions fell to 84.8 from 87.0 and was below a forecast of 88.0. The gauge hit its lowest since July.

The survey's gauge of consumer expectations also slipped, hitting its lowest since November 2011 at 62.7 from 63.8, and was below an expected 65.2.

The survey's one-year inflation expectations rose to 3.4 percent from 3.2 percent, while the survey's five-to-10-year inflation outlook was unchanged at 2.9 percent.

(Additional reporting by Steven C. Johnson and Ellen Freilich; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

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A shopper walks down an aisle in a newly opened Walmart Neighborhood Market in Chicago in this September 21, 2011 file photo.

NEW YORK | Fri Dec 21, 2012 10:21am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumer sentiment slumped in December as Americans were rattled by on-going negotiations to avert the tax hikes and spending cuts set to come into effect in the new year, data showed on Friday.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment tumbled to 72.9 from 82.7 in November, worse than forecasts for 74.7.

It was the lowest level since July and also came in under December's preliminary figure of 74.5.

Talks to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff were thrown into disarray on Thursday evening when Republican lawmakers failed to back an effort by House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner that was designed to extract concessions from President Barack Obama.

Economists say the economy could fall back into recession next year if the changes are allowed to go into full effect.

Record numbers of consumers spontaneously mentioned their concerns that no resolution would be reached before year-end, the survey said.

"Even if something is passed in the next week, unless it includes an extension of the payroll tax holiday, as well as no increase in income taxes except for the wealthy, consumers are likely to be disappointed," survey director Richard Curtin said in a statement.

Of those surveyed, 27 percent said they were concerned about higher taxes, topping the prior high of 26 percent seen in August 2011 in the wake of the drawn-out debt ceiling debate.

U.S. stocks as measured by the SP500 index were down about 1.0 percent in morning trading as hopes faded that a fiscal deal would be reached soon.

Consumers were also less upbeat about the economic outlook, with 35 percent expecting unemployment to rise during 2013, up from 19 percent in October. Only one-third expected an uninterrupted economic expansion over the next five years.

The barometer of current economic conditions slipped to 87.0 from November's 90.7, while the gauge of consumer expectations fell to 63.8 from 77.6.

The survey's one-year inflation expectation edged up to 3.2 percent from 3.1 percent, while the survey's five-to-10-year inflation outlook rose to 2.9 percent from 2.8 percent.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr)

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BEIJING | Sun Oct 14, 2012 10:37pm EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's annual consumer price inflation ticked down to 1.9 percent in September from August's 2.0 percent, official data showed on Monday, leaving plenty of room for further policy easing to shore up growth.

The headline consumer inflation number matched the forecast of economists polled by Reuters.

Analysts say consumer inflation running well below the 4 percent annual target set by the government leaves room for policymakers do more to support the economy, which Q3 data due on October 18 is likely to confirm has suffered a seventh successively slower quarter of annual growth.

"This is little surprise in the inflation data. It's mainly caused by the drop in food costs," said Zhou Hao, an economist at ANZ Bank in Shanghai. "On monetary policy, we can only say that there is a little more room for further policy easing. Exports have showed signs of stabilisation, but the economy still needs some policy loosening."

The National Bureau of Statistics said China's producer price index in September dropped 3.6 percent from a year earlier, which was also in line with forecasts.

It marked the seventh straight month of producer price deflation, hurting corporate profits and underpinning expectations that consumer inflation will stay tame in the coming months.

The central bank is widely expected to ease policy further, having cut interest rates twice since June and trimmed banks' required reserves three times since November.

Easing consumer prices and outright falls in factory gate prices are signs that the world's second-biggest economy is struggling to escape the tug of a global slowdown that has set China on course for its weakest full year of growth since 1999.

Yi Gang, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said in a speech at last week's annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund that he expected inflation to be about 2.7 percent for the full year, with growth around 7.8 percent.

But he said signs of resurgence in property prices, which the government has fought for more than two years to rein in, posed a dilemma for policymakers.

Real estate directly affects about 40 different business sectors in China and the government-induced slowdown is widely regarded by analysts as putting an extra brake on the economy.

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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A shopper walks down an aisle in a newly opened Walmart Neighborhood Market in Chicago in this September 21, 2011 file photo.

NEW YORK | Fri Sep 28, 2012 10:23am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumer sentiment rose to its highest level in four months in September as Americans saw better prospects for the job market and economy, a survey released on Friday showed.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final reading on consumer sentiment rose to 78.3 from 74.3 in August, the highest level since May.

Still, it was shy of economists' forecasts for 79, according to a Reuters poll, and gave up some of the advance seen in September's preliminary reading when the index climbed to 79.2.

Consumer expectations improved strongly, rising to 73.5 from 65.1, also the highest since May. More consumers expected the unemployment rate to fall than to rise, while twice as many survey respondents expected economic growth than those that anticipated a downturn.

Gains in home values and stock prices have also helped boost confidence and sentiment among households with incomes below $75,000 was at its highest level in five years.

But Americans' assessment of current economic conditions weakened to 85.7 from 88.7 amid concerns over their own finances. Twenty-nine percent said their financial situation had improved this month, down from 30 percent in August. In the year ahead, one-in-four households expected their finances to improve.

Consumers' inflation expectations for a year from now fell to 3.3 percent from 3.6 percent, while the five-to-10-year inflation outlook eased to 2.8 percent from 3 percent.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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