Inflation expectations have made Chinese consumers less confident in the third quarter of this year, a survey released on Wednesday indicated.

Chinese consumer confidence index dropped by 5 points from the previous quarter to 104 points in the quarter ending September, after rising for the previous five in a row, the joint survey by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and research firm Nielsen showed.

The measure had been on the rise since the second quarter of 2009 after hitting a low of 89 points in the first three months of last year as the world was struggling amid the financial crisis.

Pan Jiancheng, an official at the NBS, said the confidence drop was mainly due to consumer price rises this year and, in particular, the recent food price surge that had dealt a heavy blow to low-income groups, the Shanghai Securities News reported Thursday.

Asked about their expectations about the overall prices in the next 12 months, 76 percent of the surveyed said they believed prices would continue to rise, compared with 70 percent in the second quarter. Only 19 percent of the respondents said prices would remain unchanged and 5 percent believed prices would fall.