Urbanites in China's capital earned 18,344 yuan (US$2,352) per-capita in disposable income in the first 11 months of the year, a growth of 13.6 percent from the same period of last year.

According to the municipal bureau of statistics, the growth rate was 0.9 percentage points higher than the year-earlier level.

The quicker growth was partly due to a pay rise in some governmental departments and non-profit-making institutions.

Thanks to a robust domestic capital market, their per-capita non-salary income, including inheritance and gains from equity market, averaged 248 yuan (US$32), up 42.4 percent, the bureau said.

Between January and November, rural dwellers in the city had their per-capita cash income increase by 10.8 percent to 9,125 yuan (US$1,170). But the growth rate inched down 0.1 percentage points from a year earlier, the bureau added.

National statistics show that city dwellers in China had 8,799 yuan of disposable income per-capita, and rural residents, 2,762 yuan, in the first three quarters of the year.

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2006)