China's steady economic growth seemed to have benefitted Chinese people as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that average incomes of residents in the country continued to increase in the first six months of this year.

Data released by the NBS on Wednesday showed that average disposable income of Chinese residents went up to 10,025 yuan (US$1,629), growing at 10.8 percent from the average income during the first half of last year. Actual growth rate was 8.3 percent after inflation.

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The latest data also showed that the income gap between residents in urban and rural areas narrowed in the first six months of 2014, with income growth in rural China higher than that in urban areas by 2.7 percent.

During the January - June period, urban residents registered an average disposable income of 14,960 yuan (US$2,411), an increase of 7.1 percent from the same period of last year.

Rural residents, meanwhile, pocketed an average cash income of 5,400 yuan (US$870), or 9.8 percent more than what they earned in the first six months of 2013.

The NBS data also showed that around 174 million rural migrant workers were went out of their hometowns to work by the end of last month, with their monthly average income hitting 2,730 yuan (US$440), a 10.2 percent rise from a year ago.

A research conducted by Boston Consulting Group predicted that consumer spending in China is expected to triple by 2020.

The report about Chinese income growth was released around the same time that the NBS said China's economic growth reached 7.5 percent in the second quarter of this year.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) growth exceeded the 7.4 percent expansion forecast by 21 economists. For the first six months of this year, China's economic growth was 7.4 percent.

Economists said the latest economic figure shows that the country's economy is picking up from last year's drop and that the government's stimulus programs have finally yielded results for the world's second biggest economy.

NBS Spokesman Sheng Laiyun told reporters in a news conference in Beijing that the central government will continue to initiate reforms to keep the good economic momentum registered in the first half of this year.

TagsChinese income