China’s urban-rural income gap grew the widest last year since the country launched its opening-up policy in 1978, state media reported. According to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, urban per capita income was US$2,525 against rural per capita net income of US$754. "I am afraid the (urban-rural) income gap will continue to expand as the country focuses its efforts on urban sprawl, rather than rural development," Song Hongyuan, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture said. Government researchers have warned that effective measures must be taken in the coming years to narrow the difference between the rich and the poor in order to maiintain social cohesion. This is in contrast to the latest report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which concluded that the gap between the rich and the poor in China was decreasing thanks to increased welfare spending and major adjustments to the labor market for reducing disparities.
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