The income of rural dwellers in Shanghai, an economic engine in East China, registered a stable growth in the first quarter of this year, thanks partly to the local government's efforts to standardize the rural housing lease market and to increase pay at township enterprises.

According to the municipal bureau of statistics, the per-capita income of rural residents reached 3,382 yuan (US$407.5) in the three-month period, an increase of 230 yuan (US$27.7), or 7.3 percent, from the year-earlier level. The growth rate was 0.6 percentage points higher than that in a year ago.

Of the income, salaries claimed a significant share, averaging 2,829 yuan (US$340.8), 149 yuan (US$17.95) more than the year-earlier level. The per-capita salary income included 1,074 yuan (US$129.4) in earnings from township enterprises.

On the basis of improved local land-use policy and the standardized housing lease market in rural areas, gains on housing rent, land transfer and contract and compensation for land appropriation increased rapidly.

As residents of the suburban areas of Shanghai are among China's aging population, the number of rural dwellers who got pensions increased by 12.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, and the per-capita income for such purposes went up 28.8 percent accordingly.

However, the statistical bureau says, the rural income from farming decreased in the first three months.

Meanwhile, the per-capita spending in consumption goods by Shanghai's rural dwellers rose 15.2 percent year-on-year to 1,785 yuan (US$215.1) in the first quarter. Most of the money went to education, entertainment and services, the bureau adds.

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2004)