China's per capita GDP crosses $10,000-mark for the first time

For the first time, the per capita GDP of China, the world's most populous nation, has exceeded the $10,000-mark in 2019, a top official said on Friday. The per capita Gross Domestic Product in 2019 reached 10,276 US dollars at the average exchange rate, exceeding the 10,000-dollar mark, Director of the National Bureau of Statistics, Ning Jizhe said.

As a country with 1.4 billion people and a per capita GDP of more than 10,000 US dollars, China will contribute more to the development and progress of the world, he said.

"It showed that the quality of China's economic development is improving," Ning said, adding that "China's pace of progress is unstoppable".

According to the World Bank, the population of countries with per capita GDP above 10,000 US dollars was nearly 1.5 billion in 2018.

As China enters the ranks of such countries, their collective population will approach 3 billion, representing major progress in the economic and social development of the world, Ning was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

China's per capita disposable income stood at 30,733 yuan (4,461.95 US dollars) in 2019, up 5.8 per cent year on year in real terms, according to official data released by the NBS.

Separately, urban and rural per capita disposable income reached 42,359 yuan and 16,021 yuan in 2019, up 5 per cent and 6.2 per cent in real terms after deducting price factors, respectively, it said.

In 2019, the real growth of per capita disposable income in rural areas was faster than that in urban areas, indicating narrowing of the urban-rural income gap, according to the NBS data.

Chinese per capita consumer spending increased by 5.5 per cent year on year in real terms to reach 21,559 yuan in 2019.

The NBS data also showed China's economy grew 6.1 per cent year on year in 2019, within the government's annual target of 6 to 6.5 per cent. However, the growth rate was the lowest in 29 years.

By 2020, China has said that it aims to double the per capita income of its urban and rural residents from 2010 levels.