China confirms more than 40 per cent of population survived on just US$141 per month in 2019

Last year, the bottom 40 per cent of Chinese households ranked by income, totalling more than 600 million people, had a per capita disposable income of 11,485 yuan (US$1,621)

The data confirmed the surprising claim made by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the end of the National People’s Congress in May

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The data, released in an extract of the yet to be published 2019 survey, confirmed the surprising claim made by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the end of the National People’s Congress in May. Photo: AP

Published: 6:12pm, 15 Jun 2020Updated: 10:16pm, 15 Jun 2020

More than 40 per cent of China’s population earned only about 1,000 yuan (US$141) per month last year, the top economic data agency confirmed on Monday, setting the stage for further debate over the income gap in the world’s second largest economy.

The data, quoted in an abstract of the yet to be published statistical yearbook covering 2019, confirmed the surprising claim made by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the end of the National People’s Congress in May.

Last year, the bottom 40 per cent of Chinese households ranked by income, totalling more than 600 million people out of a population of 1.4 billion people, had a per capita disposable income of 11,485 yuan (US$1,621), an average of 957 yuan per month, according to the annual household income and expenditure survey conducted by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In 2018, the same group earned a per capita disposable monthly income of 866 yuan.

The NBS quoted the abstract from the 2020 China Statistical Yearbook in response to a media inquiry on Monday, with the full report not expected to be published until later this year. The official publication date of the abstract was listed as May 1, prior to Li’s speech at the end of the National People’s Congress on May 28.