People in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, Shanghai, and Beijing remained the highest earners and most eager consumers among residents of the 10 largest Chinese cities in 2002, according to a report from the Beijing Municipal Statistics Bureau.

According to the report, the three cities, in the above-mentioned order, maintained their top positions among the country's 10 major cities, in terms of both annual per capita disposable income and annual per capita consumer spending.

"Beijing's good economic performance last year has enabled the city to close the gap in the two categories with Guangzhou and Shanghai," said Zhang Xueyuan, a bureau official.

The report examines the differences in annual per capita disposable income between Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. For example, the gap between Beijing and Shanghai fell to 786.3 yuan (US$95.5) in 2002 from 1,305.7 yuan (US$158.6) in 2001.

Beijingers are increasingly confident about their economic future and are more willing to spend money.

Beijingers' annual per capita consumer spending jumped to 10,285.8 yuan (US$1,242.2) last year, 15.3 percent higher than the previous year. The increase is the biggest among the 10 major cities for this period.

While the top three cities see a narrowing gap in annual per capita disposable income, the difference between them as a whole and the other seven cities increased last year.

According to the report, the annual per capita disposable incomes of Tianjin and Chongqing, which are ranked fourth and fifth, were 3,126.4 yuan (US$377.6) and 5,225.9 yuan (US$631.1) respectively, less than last year's figure for Beijing. The two figures were 2,619.1 yuan (US$316.3) and 4,856.7 yuan (US$586.6) in the previous year.

However, based on the fact that in all of the 10 major cities, except Shanghai, more than 60 percent of their residents' income comes exclusively from salaries, Zhang said that Chinese people in general are still in great need of diversifying their sources of income, in order to achieve more financial security.

Other sources of income include interest earned from savings, securities, insurance and stocks, he said.

The cities include Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang and Harbin, capitals of Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces, Guangzhou, Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, Chongqing, Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province.

(China Daily April 14, 2003)