Income gap 'alarming': report
7 February 2006
The income gap between China's urban rich and poor has widened to an alarming and unreasonable level, the State Development and Reform Commission said in a report issued Sunday. A social investigation into China's urban residents put China's Gini Coefficient - an internationally accepted measurement of income equality - at 0.4, the international benchmark for alarm. The poorest fifth of urban income earners account for 2.75% of the country's total urban income, which is equivalent to only 4.6% of the income of the richest 20%.