China’s wealth gap widens

China's wealth gap is widening to an alarming level, a survey showed Sunday, in a report that urged the government to raise welfare and social security to narrow the gap.

China's Gini coefficient, a gauge of the wealth gap, reached 0.61 in 2010, much higher than the international warning line of 0.4, according to a report released by the China Household Finance Survey Center.

The coefficient was 0.56 in urban families and 0.60 in rural families, compared with a global average of 0.44 in 2010, the survey said.

China's current income inequality is quite unusual compared with the rest of the world, said Gan Li, director of the center, but he noted that a high Gini coefficient is not disastrous and is commonly seen in the process of rapid economic growth.

In the short term, the government can narrow the wealth gap through transfer payments including welfare, social security and government subsidies, and in the long term, better education can effectively equalize opportunity, the report said.

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