China's personal income rises 6.3% in 2016

BEIJING - China's per capita disposable income stood at 23,821 yuan ($3,469) in 2016, up 6.3 percent year-on-year in real terms, official data showed Friday.

The increase was slower than the 7.4 percent rise in 2015, as China's economy posted the slowest pace of growth in 26 years in 2016.

Urban and rural per capita disposable income reached 33,616 yuan and 12,363 yuan in 2016, up 5.6 percent and 6.2 percent in real terms, respectively, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

China's Gini coefficient, an index reflecting inequality where zero equals perfect equality, stood at 0.465 in 2016, said NBS chief Ning Jizhe at a press conference Friday.

The index edged up from 0.462 in 2015 after dropping for seven years in a row, but it remained lower than the reading of 0.474 in 2012, 0.473 in 2013 and 0.469 in 2014.

Ning attributed the higher index to slower pension growth for some urban groups and the negative effect of falling grain prices on farmers' income.

He said the income gap was expected to narrow gradually as the government stepped up poverty relief and pursued the integrated development of urban and rural areas.

The per capita income of urban households was 2.72 times that of rural households, down from 2.73 times in 2015, NBS data showed.

The average monthly income of rural migrant workers was 3,275 yuan, up by 6.6 percent year on year, compared with a 7.2 percent increase in 2015.

China aims to double the per capita income of its urban and rural residents by 2020, from 2010 levels, to build a moderately prosperous society.