China income gap between the urban rich and poor has widened to an alarming and unreasonable level, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a report issued Sunday.

The NDRC made the announcement after an investigation into China's urban population and relevant statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

"China's income gap is continuously expanding," said the NDRC report. At present, China's Gini Coefficient (an internationally accepted measurement of income equality) is 0.4, the international benchmark for alarm. The NDRC warns that the actual figure may be even higher as a number of incomes may have been underestimated.

Statistics show that the 20 percent with the lowest income in China's cities only get 2.75 percent of the country's total urban income, or equivalent to only 4.6 percent of the income of China's richest 20 percent.

The growing income gap was caused by growing salary gaps between different industries, between the employers and the employees, and increases in part time incomes.

Professor Li Yingsheng of the Renmin University of China, who participated in the social investigation on urban income, said China lacked an income adjustment mechanism.

Professor Li urges the government to further increase the proportion of middle-level income groups and raise the income of the lowest-level groups.

Officials with the NDRC said the government had pledged to take tougher measures in the coming years to curb the increasing inequality.

(Shenzhen Daily February 7, 2006)