China's Rural Poverty Population Falls To 55.75 Mln In 2015

BEIJING, Feb 29 (Bernama) -- China reduced its rural poverty population by 14.42 million to 55.75 million last year. China's Xinhua News Agency, quoting a statement from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said over 17 million urban and 49 million rural residents received minimum living allowances as of the end of last year. "Disparities between the urban and rural areas continued to narrow last year. "The urban income was 2.73 times higher than among the rural populace, down two percentage points from a year earlier," Xu Xianchun, Deputy Director of the NBS was quoted as saying. Deducting price factors, the per capita disposable income of urban residents rose 6.6 per cent year-on-year in 2015. That of rural residents increased 7.5 per cent. The per capita net income of rural residents stood at 10,772 yuan (US$1,657) last year. -- BERNAMA