Urban-rural income gap widest since opening-up

BEIJING: China recorded its widest rural-urban income gap last year since the country launched its reform and opening-up policy in 1978.

Think tank researchers warned the gap will continue to widen in the coming years if effective measures to narrow the difference are not implemented soon.

The urban per capita net income stood at 17,175 yuan ($2,525) last year, in contrast to 5,153 yuan in the countryside, with the urban-to-rural income ratio being 3.33:1, according to the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The Ministry of Agriculture had earlier said that the ratio in 2007 was 3.32:1, which narrowed by to 3.31:1 in 2008.

Although there has yet to be an official announcement, China Daily's calculations reveal 2009 saw China's widest urban-rural income gap in the past 32 years.

"I am afraid the (urban-rural) income gap will continue to expand as the country focuses its efforts on urban sprawl, rather than rural development," Song Hongyuan, director of the Research Center for the Rural Economy in the Ministry of Agriculture, told China Daily.

Several think tank organizations have raised similar warnings ahead of the upcoming annual sessions of top legislators and political advisors, which open Wednesday and Friday respectively, expecting the income disparity issue to top the discussion agenda.