BEIJING, Sept. 11 -- More than half of respondents to a survey on subtle corruption during China's Mid-Autumn festival believe there has been less use of public funds to buy traditional snacks this year, according to results published on Thursday.

Some 54.6 percent of those polled by the China Youth Daily felt that there had been a marked drop in spending of public funds on mooncakes, while 76.7 percent said they have noticed the top anti-graft body's ban on this practice.

Where respondents have received mooncakes, 49.4 percent said they bought them themselves, 32 percent got them from relatives or friends, 27.4 percent from employers, 6.7 percent from clients, and 4.5 percent from their subordinates.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on Sept. 8 this year, is a Chinese holiday during which families reunite under the full moon. The mooncakes associated with the festival have become a currency for bribery.

Before the festival, the Central Commission for Discipline and Inspection, the disciplinary watchdog of the Communist Party of China, reiterated a ban on using public funds to buy mooncakes and opened a special section on its website for the public to report violations of the rule.

The survey respondents believe the most effective measures against flouting the ban are harsh penalties, strict bans, public tip-offs, budget restrictions, and clearing government "small coffers," secret stores of money.

The survey sampled 1,853 people, with their employers ranging from private and state-owned companies to government agencies.