The per capita consumption of farmers in central China's Henan Province grew 16.2 percent in 2006
compared with the previous year, while the consumption of their
peers in the urban districts registered a year-on-year increase of
9.4 percent.
This is the first time that the growth rate of rural consumption
surpassed that of urban districts in the past decade in Henan, one
of the country's leading agricultural bases. Hebei Province, another agriculture base of
the country, witnessed similar development.
Experts described the phenomena of rising rural consumption as
the result of increasing income for farmers.
Ma Xiaohe, deputy director of the macro-economy research
institute under the?National Development and Reform
Commission, said that the consumption markets have warmed up since
2005, and he attributed the welcome change to the central
government's continuous efforts to offer favorable policies for
agriculture and farmers.
The central government of China will spend 391.7 billion yuan
(about US$48.96 billion) on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers
this year, up 52 billion yuan (about US$6.5 billion) as it vows to
develop modern agriculture and promote the building of a new
countryside said Premier Wen Jiabao in a government work report last
Monday.
"We will effectively shift the focus of state infrastructure
development and development of social programs to the countryside,"
Wen told 2,890 lawmakers at the Fifth Session of the 10th National People's
Congress (NPC).
Some Chinese enterprises have shown great interest in the rural
market, and supermarkets have already been built in some rural
areas. China's 900 million farmers have a great potential for
consumption, according to Ma.
China's rural consumption in 2005 was 370.5 billion yuan (about
US$46.3 billion) higher than that of 2004.
Despite higher consumption, investment and export remain the
major components of the country's economic growth, said Xie Fuzhan,
director of the?National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
To solve the problem, Xie said, the Chinese government has taken
some measures to increase people's incomes, especially in the
countryside, though they still remain relatively low by
international standards.
(Xinhua News Agency March?14, 2007)