CHINA-ECONOMY: CHINA'S NATIONAL STATISTICS BUREAU REVEALS NEW INCOME FIGURES OF CHINA'S MIDDLE CLASS

Writing in the Asia Times (November 28), Frank Chen claimed that China's National Statistics Bureau was cited by China's State Council at a press conference marking China's 71st anniversary in October, that China now has no less than 400 million middle-class consumers. It claimed that working residents in Shanghai earned 54,126 yuan (US$8,236) on average in the first nine months, up roughly 5% year-on-year. Beijing’s corresponding figure was 51,772 yuan ($7,868).  A quarterly salary survey conducted by Zhilian, China’s largest jobs and employment consultancy, stated that working residents in Beijing made 11,623 yuan ($1,766) a month between June and September. It pegged Shanghai’s figure at 11,226 yuan ($1,706).  NSB median income data for the first nine months of this year showed that the middle class in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other second-tier cities is making far less than formerly estimated. Those in Beijing make the highest amount, 6,906 yuan ($1,050) per month, followed by Shanghai’s 6,378 yuan ($969) and Shenzhen’s 5,199 yuan ($790). NSB data, however, also revealed that in the first three-quarters of this year the median income for the nation’s entire working class stood at 20,512 yuan ($3,117), or 2,279 yuan ($346) per month, 15% lower than the per capita average figure announced earlier by the bureau.  The new median income figures corroborate Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s surprise revelation at a National People’s Congress press conference in May that 600 million Chinese, or nearly half of the world’s second-largest economy’s population, were living a hand-to-mouth existence with a monthly income of 1,000 yuan ($152). “You cannot even rent a home in any big cities with just 1,000 yuan,” the Premier said at the televised question-and-answer event at the time.  







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