BIZCHINA / Biz Media Digest

Macro Economy: Gap is too great
(People's Daily Online)
Updated: 2006-06-23 15:44

Vice Minister of Finance, Lou Jiwei, has pointed out that currently the Chinese income distribution gap is too big and even more seriously, the starting point for people to make a good living is unfair.

Mr. Lou led a research on the income distribution issue and published the research article in the Learning Times. He gave the following analysis:

Firstly, the current Gini coefficient, which reflects the distribution disparity of people's income, is 0.46 in China, indicating a phenomenon of uneven distribution. It's also worthwhile to mention that the Gini coefficient in the rural area is 0.37 and in urban areas is 0.34. However, by putting both rural and urban areas together, the Gini coefficient is 0.46. This means that either in rural areas or in urban areas, the income distribution is relatively even, but the income gap between rural and urban areas is too great.


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