Cities Increase Minimum Living Standard

A number of Chinese cities have increased the minimum living subsidy to deal with the increasing pressure from inflation. Low-income residents in Dalian, Shanghai and Guangzhou will be able to see the increases starting next month.

Our reporter Wang Jing has more.

The northern port city of Dalian has earmarked 62 million US dollars this year to minimum living guarantee programs.

Yang Aimin, director from the local bureau of civil affaires, says the subsidies now extend to cover three new types of families. Single parent families, families with serious disabled members and families with financial problems that have a college student to support are included for the first time.

"The increase in minimum living standard and extending the program's coverage is an important policy step. We will speed up creating policies that classifies assistance in rural areas."

The minimum living standard in Shanghai has been raised as well. Urban residents that are covered in the program can expect 505 yuan every month from the government subsidy, which is a 12 percent increase from last year.
This is considered to be the largest yearly increase in a decade.

Yao Kai, deputy director from Shanghai's local bureau of civil affairs, says subsidies to rural residents has increased even higher, which is a 20 percent rise from last year to 360 yuan per month.

"Compared to living expenses in urban areas, rural area is catching up fast, for this reason, rural areas have seen a bigger increase in their subsidies. The economic development in Shanghai is healthy and we had a quick increase of fiscal revenue last year, so the subsidy increase this time is within our reach."

Meanwhile, the southern city of Guangzhou will increase the minimum living subsidy by 23 percent, the highest increase since the program's creation in 1995.

China's consumer price index, a major gauge of inflation, rose 4.9 percent in February from a year earlier, as food prices surged 11 percent.

The Ministry of Civil Affaires and the Ministry of Finance are urging local governments to work on a mechanism that would allow the minimum living standard to rise in line with inflation.

For CRI, I'm Wang Jing.