I. The People's Rights to Subsistence and Development     

    In 2003 China's economy observed a rapid and healthy growth, and the people's rights to subsistence and development were further improved. Over the past year the country's gross domestic product (GDP) reached 11,669.4 billion yuan, an increase of 9.1 percent over the previous year. Calculated at the current rate of exchange, the GDP per capita surpassed 1,000 US dollars for the first time, a major step up.

    The general living standard of the people continued to rise. In2003 the per-capita disposable income of urban residents was 8,472 yuan, an increase, in real terms, of nine percent over the previous year after deduction for inflation. The net per-capita income for rural residents was 2,622 yuan, an increase of 4.3 percent in real terms.

    The consumption pattern of the society showed that it was gradually changing from one of basic living to one of modern living. In 2003 China's retail sales of consumer goods totaled 4,584.2 billion yuan-worth, an increase of 9.1 percent over the previous year. The proportion of urban and rural residents' expenditure on clothing, food and other daily necessities kept declining, while the proportion of their expenditure on high-gradedaily-use articles, cars, housing, medical care and entertainment was increasing. In 2003 the Engel coefficient (i.e. the proportionof food expenditure in the total consumption spending) per urban and rural household decreased by 0.6 percentage point from the previous year. In urban areas, the figure dropped to 37.1 percent from 57.5 percent in 1978, and in rural areas it dropped to 45.6 percent from 67.7 percent in 1978. In 2003 China produced 2.02 million cars, an increase of 85 percent over the previous year. Bythe end of 2003 private cars owned by individuals had reached 4.89million, an increase of 1.46 million cars over the previous year. In 2003 an additional 49.08 million households had telephones installed in their residences, bringing the total number of households with telephones to 263.3 million at the year's end. Also in 2003, new mobile phone users increased by 62.69 million, bringing the total number to 268.69 million at the year's end. Thenumber of fixed and mobile phone users combined reached 532 million at the end of 2003. There are now 42 telephones for every 100 people, putting China among the top countries in terms of the pace and scale of development. By the end of 2003 there were 30.89 million computers throughout the country connected to the Internet,and the number of households logging on came to 79.5 million, ranking China second in the world. (more)