The income of China's urban and rural residents continued to increase in the first quarter, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Thursday.

In the first three months of the year, per-capita disposable income for urban people hit 5,308 yuan (US$778.3), up 9.8 percent year on year. After deducting inflation, though, actual growth was 7.5 percent, said NBS spokesperson Li Xiaochao.

Per-capita cash income for rural residents stood at 1,814 yuan in the first quarter, jumping 11.8 percent from a year earlier. But after deducting inflation factors, actual growth was 9.2 percent.

In a breakdown, urban people saw year on year increases of 9.7 percent, 13.3 percent, 7.5 percent and 17 percent on the wage income, transfer-payment income, operational income and property income respectively.

While rural residents' wage income, transfer-payment income, operational income and property income grew 16.3 percent, 13.8 percent, 7.6 percent and 15.6 respectively.

In 2009, the per-capita disposable income of urban people was 17,175 yuan, up 8.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the NBS.

Per-capita disposable income for rural residents last year stood at 5,153 yuan, with a growth rate 0.6 percentage points lower than that of urban residents.

After China introduced the household contract responsibility system to the countryside in 1978, rural residents initially saw their incomes grow faster.

Official figures showed that the income ratio, a gauge of balanced social development, has been widening since 1985, when the income growth of rural residents slowed as the focus of reform moved to the cities.

The NBS did not provide the income ratio between urban and rural residents in the first quarter this year.

Earlier data from the NBS showed that the income ratio between urban and rural residents was 3.33:1 in 2009, which meant city dwellers' average incomes were 3.33 times greater than the average for farmers. In 2008, the ratio was 3.31:1.

In comparison, the income ratio was 2.56:1 in 1978 when city dwellers' average incomes stood at 343 yuan while that of farmers was 134 yuan.

(Xinhua News Agency April 15, 2010)