Yunnan Province has seen rapid economic growth since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in 2002.

Driven by the western development strategy, urban residents' income in the province has increased and the standard of living has improved, according to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In 2006, the per capita disposable income of urban residents in Yunnan was over 10,000 yuan, up 39 percent on 2002. The past four years have seen rapid growth, with an average annual increase of 8.6 percent.

The fast development of the province's macroeconomy has also driven an increase in consumer spending. In 2006, per capita consumer expenditure by Yunnan's urban residents was nearly 7,400 yuan, up 27 percent on 2002, an annual increase of 6 percent.

Although food remains the major sector at more than 40 percent of overall expenditure, Yunnan's consumers are spending more on clothes and the service industry. Urban residents spend 745 yuan per year on clothes, up 38 percent on 2002.

A major change in spending habits in the province is that people have started buying cars. In 2006, there were 8.67 cars per 100 households in Yunnan, while five years earlier there were only 1.5 cars per 100 households.

But the NBS figures also show the gap between high-income earners and lower income families is widening. In 2006, the lowest income families, which made up 5 percent of the province's population, had a per capita disposable income of 2,370 yuan - only 3.66 percent higher than in 2002, and much lower than the province's average increase of 39 percent and the 72.25 percent rise for high-income families.

The province's economy still lags behind the national level. The average per capita disposable income in China was 11,759 yuan in 2006, about 1,700 yuan higher than Yunnan's.

And that gap is widening, according to the NBS. Per capita consumer spending of urban residents in China was 6,030 yuan in 2002, 201 yuan higher than in Yunnan. In 2006, per capita consumer spending in China increased to 8,700 yuan, compared with 7,400 yuan in Yunnan. The gap has increased to 1,317 yuan, nearly five times higher than five years ago.

This is mainly because the wages of Yunnan's urban residents are lower than the national average, according to the report.

China Daily