Urban residents in Shanghai, China's financial and commercial hub, had the highest disposable income in China in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

The average disposable income of Shanghai urbanites hit 6,795 yuan for the January to March period, followed by 6,676 yuan in the neighboring province of Zhejiang and 5,901 yuan in Beijing.

The average disposable income of urban residents rose 19.5 percent to 3,935 yuan in the first three months, it said. The growth rate was 16.6 percent after price adjustments, 5.8 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

The bureau said last month that the first quarter cash income of China's rural population jumped 15.2 percent to 1,260 yuan, the highest increase in a decade.

Analysts said the high income rise of Chinese residents has boosted retail sales.

China's retail sales in April climbed 15.5 percent year-on-year to 667 billion yuan (US$87 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2007)