China has published its official Gini coefficient, a measure of wealth disparity, for the first time in 12 years.
China's Gini coefficient reached 0.474 last year, higher than the warning level of 0.4 set by the United Nations, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Jan. 18.
The rich-poor index has been retreated gradually since hitting a peak of 0.491 in 2008, dropping to 0.49 in 2009, 0.481 in 2010 and 0.477 in 2011, said the director of the NBS, Ma Jiantang. The index stood at 0.479 in 2003, 0.473 in 2004, 0.485 in 2005, 0.487 in 2006 and 0.484 in 2007.
A Gini index of zero signals perfect equality, while a coefficient of 1 indicates maximum inequality. According to U.N. standards, an index reading between 0.3 and 0.4 means the rich-poor gap is relatively reasonable.
Due to the lack of unified survey standards in different areas, the NBS was unable to release the Gini coefficient for the entire country until December last year. But as it managed to adopt the unified statistical standards and indicators for collecting data from urban and rural residents, Gini coefficient was successfully calculated for the year 2012.
The average per capita disposable income of urban residents in 2012 was 24,565 yuan, while the average per capita net income of rural residents was 7,917 yuan, with the income ratio reaching three to one, according to the results.
With the rapid economic growth, the widening wealth gap between urban and rural areas and among different regions and social strata has increasingly become an outstanding social problem.
China has vowed to double the country‘s 2010 gross domestic output (GDP) and per capita income for both urban and rural residents by 2020 to solve the problem.
Efforts should be made to solve the income disparity through institutional reforms such as breaking monopoly, wiping out grey income, improving residents’ employ-ability and ensuring equal opportunities, experts said.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com