Beijing incomes, consumption improve on policy boost

Beijing's residents are seeing higher incomes and consumption structure improvements due to policies that rolled out in the first three quarters of the year, a senior official said on Monday.

The capital's per capita disposable income in the first nine months increased 8.9 percent year-on-year to 46,426 yuan ($6,691), a result of multiple preferential policies from the municipal government, said Fang Xiaodan, spokesperson for the Beijing investigation team of the National Bureau of Statistics, during a news conference.

"The macro economy and job market in Beijing were stable during the first nine months, with GDP growth of 6.7 percent year-on-year, which has provided strong support for citizens' income increases," she said.

According to data released by the Beijing Bureau of Statistics, the city's GDP in the first three quarters of 2018 totaled 2.15 trillion yuan.

Beijing raised pension payments for employees in government departments, companies and institutions starting from January this year, which has brought benefits to around 2.82 million people.

The policy contributed 0.3 percentage points to per capita disposable income growth in Beijing, Fang said.

The local government also raised the basic pension for all residents, as well as the welfare pension for the elderly population with little to no support, from the beginning of this year. The move has also driven up average incomes, she said.

Beijing's consumption structure is upgrading as spending on personal development grew faster than spending on basic living, according to the bureau's data.

During the first nine months, spending on healthcare grew 23.8 percent year-on-year, while spending on services increased by 12.2 percent. Both figures are higher than total consumption growth, which was 6.7 percent.

Food and beverage consumption during the same period dropped 0.6 percent year-on-year.

Pang Jiangqian, spokesperson for the Beijing Bureau of Statistics, said Beijing's economic growth is now of a higher quality. Particularly, the finance, high-tech and scientific research industries have contributed more added value, growing 18.2 percent year-on-year.