Martin Li, Luo Songsong

    martin.mouse@163.com

    SHENZHEN’S per capita disposable income reached 40,742 yuan (US$6,487) last year, around 4,000 yuan more than in 2011, but some residents said they didn’t feel the increase in their wallets.

    The national per capita disposable income for urban residents stood at 24,565 yuan last year. Shenzhen’s average was based on a survey of 600 local households, including some with permanent residency status known as hukou and some without, according to Wu Jianming, spokesman of the Shenzhen survey office of the National Bureau of Statistics.

    Wu attributed the rising level of disposable income to last year’s decline in inflation growth, which resulted from weak external demand and a slowing economy domestically.

    Many Shenzhen residents said they didn’t feel that the city’s statistical growth in disposable income translated to more purchasing power.

    “My income almost reached the city’s average last year. However, prices (of goods and services) in Shenzhen remain high, so the increased average doesn’t reflect an improvement in people’s lives,” Futian District hospital worker Deng Yan told Shenzhen Daily yesterday.

    Deng said she failed to save any money last year after paying for her apartment’s rent, food, transportation costs and other necessities.

    Liu Tiantian, a human resources employee in Futian, said he didn’t feel his income grow last year. In contrast, he said, he continued to struggle with high commodity prices.

    “My quality of life saw a small improvement last year, but my savings didn’t increase,” Liu said.

    Many microblog posts about the new income data doubted what the average figures really reflect.

    “The statistics turn a blind eye to the huge population of low-income migrant workers in Shenzhen. What’s the meaning of it?” said a netizen using the name Xixilishu.

    The survey office also released the city’s median disposable income for 2012, which stood at 36,343 yuan. The median income is thought to better reflect residents’ real income levels, and has now been reported for two consecutive years by the local survey office.

    Last year’s median income was a 9.1-percent increase from 2011.

    On a macro level, Shenzhen’s GDP surpassed 1.2 trillion yuan last year, a 10-percent increase from 2011, according to the Shenzhen Statistics Bureau.

    The figure puts Shenzhen in fourth place among mainland cities, following Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

    Service industries continued to be the biggest contributor to the city’s economy last year.