China's disposable income grows 8%

China's average per capita disposable income last year was 20,167 yuan ($3,361), up 8 percent year-on-year after the price hike is deducted, and markedly higher than the country's GDP growth at 7.4 percent, said the National Bureau of Statistics.

Farmers' annual personal disposable income increased by 9.2 percent year-on-year to 10,489 yuan, faster than the national average rate of growth.

Shanghai's annual per capita disposable revenue last year, 47,710 yuan, was the highest in China, followed by Beijing at 43,910 yuan.

Shanghai, Beijing, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Tianjin, Fujian, Shandong and Liaoning are the nine provincial regions whose average personal disposable incomes are above the national average level.

The regional income gap is still large. In western Gansu province, an urban resident's average annual personal income was 20,804 yuan, the lowest in China. Local farmers' personal net income last year was only 5,736 yuan, or about $2.62 a day, slightly above the $2 poverty line drawn by the World Bank.

According to the bureau, the national personal average consumption last year was 14,491 yuan, up 7.5 percent. An urban resident's personal annual spending was 19,968 yuan, up 5.8 percent, and a rural resident's personal average consumption was 8,383 yuan, up 10 percent.

Of the 36 provinces on the Chinese mainland, 19 increased their minimum wage standards. But the average amount of their increase - 14.1 percent - was lower than that of the previous three years. The year-on-year minimum wage hikes in 2011, 2012 and 2013 were 22 percent, 20.2 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

Shanghai has the highest monthly minimum wage standard and hour payment standard of 1,820 yuan and 17 yuan, respectively.

Liu Xuemin, a researcher at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said: "The income gap between the eastern and western regions can be abridged gradually as some labor-intensive industries relocate to the inland areas from the coastal regions.

"If laborers' pay rises along with the increase in productivity, the salary's growth is sustainable, and the government should increase labor's share in the primary distribution of national wealth to ensure laborers' income through top-design policies."

liyang@chinadaily.com.cn