GDP and incomes to increase 'in step'

GDP and incomes to increase 'in step'

• Source: Global Times
• [09:43 March 08 2011]
• Comments

A man rides past a Ferrari owned by 29-year-old driver Li Fu in Beijing on February 25. Photo: AFP

Beijing senior officials pledged to boost the average income of residents to keep up with eco-nomic growth over the next five years, after income growth de-creased in January, a local news-paper reported Monday.

"The economy should in-clude people's livelihood, and the people's livelihood is the economy," vice-mayor Ji Lin said at the National People's Congress (NPC) on Sunday, while deputies deliberated a draft outline for Beijing's 12th Five-Year Plan, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

Ji explained that incomes in January had increased about 2 percent, far from the goal indi-cated in the outline draft. "We will face tremendous pressure for this," Ji said.

The Fourth Session of the 13th Beijing Municipal People's Congress approved the outline of Beijing's 12th Five-Year Plan in January. The outline pro-poses to maintain economic growth at 8 percent while in-creasing income in steps.

According to the Plan, al-though GDP is expected to fall by 1 percent, average incomes will increase by 2 percent. This is in contrast to the previous Plan, which indicated GDP growth at 9 percent and a 6 percent increase in income, the Beijing News reported.

Mayor Guo Jinlong said a same growth rate would help in narrowing the income gap, the Legal Mirror reported on Janu-ary 16. "This change in policy indicates the government is shifting focus from "govern-ment income" to "resident incomes," Zeng Kanghu, pro-fessor at the School of Public Finance of the Central Univer-sity of Finance and Economics, told the Legal Mirror.

"In the past, the government only focused on economic growth and GDP. But as the State and government became wealthier, people weren't see-ing it reflected in their in-comes," he explained.

However, the 1 percent growth in income during Janu-ary fell short of the expected 7 percent indicated during the 12th Five-Year Plan.

"No matter how hard pressed, the government will reach the same growth rate based on planned system re-forms," Ji claimed.

Global Times