Farmers boost consumption

For the first three quarters of the year, Chinese farmers earned 2622.2 yuan in cash per capital on average. This represents an increase of 11.4 percent when price hikes are taken into consideration. The record growth speed since 1984 makes it even faster than the rise of disposable income of urban residents by 4.4 percentage points for the first time since 1997.

The swelling pockets of farmers have begun to be a driving force to the consumption. Sales of consumer products for necessities spiraled up for the first 10 months of the year. Retailing sales of food, clothes and the daily neceaaries jumped 18.4, 17.8 and 17.5 percent respectively in October.

In urban areas, sales of products for the purpose of upgrading consumption slowed down. Retailing of communication equipment, for example, rose 27.7 percent in October, compared with 45.2 percent for the first three quarters. And auto sales experienced only a slight increase of 2.1 percent.

Before that, farmers spending at a low level and a slow growth had long been hindering the economic development. But this year the Chinese government have taken an array of measures to prop up the agriculture and protect the interests of farmers. Farmers are more motivated to engage in grain production. As a result, the harvest this year climbed 5 percent and farmers found themselves make much better money than ever.

Preliminary survey shows that the three kinds of subsidies and tax cuts in rural areas added around 50 yuan to a farmers' pocket and gave a push-start of 2 percentage points to their income.

Although there are signs of acceleration of farmers income growth, the de facto dual economic structure which have long been there has given rise to poor income and sluggish consumption among farmers. At present, there is a 10-year gap between farmers and urban residents in terms of money they make. And the consumption of farmers lags behind their urban peers 15 years. The change of the situation is not a matter of one or two year increase of income and spending.

By People's daily Online