In the first half of the year, Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, experienced a stable economic recovery, with the incomes of urban and rural residents growing at a pace and prices remaining low.

A spectacular city view of Xi'an. [Photo/WeChat account of Xi'an Release]

During the period, the per capita disposable income of Xi'an residents was 21,725 yuan ($2,983.21), a nominal increase of 6.7 percent year-on-year. After deducting price factors, the real increase was 6.4 percent.

Among the 10 cities in the province, the per capita disposable income of Xi'an residents ranked the highest.

Of that, the per capita disposable incomes of its urban and rural residents were 26,017 yuan and 10,222 yuan, respectively, year-on-year increases of 5.5 percent and 8.1 percent. The urban-rural income ratio was 2.60:1, a decrease of 0.06 percentage points from the same period last year.

The growth rate of per capita disposable income of urban residents in Xi'an ranked second among the 15 sub-provincial cities, excluding Harbin and Changchun without available data. It was 0.2 percentage points lower than the first-ranked Shenzhen, while the growth rate of the incomes of rural residents ranked first, 0.6 percentage points higher than the second-ranked Shenyang.

With the continued effect of consumer spending promotions and incentives policies, the expenditure by residents showed clear signs of recovery.

In the first six months, the per capita consumption expenditure of urban and rural residents in Xi'an amounted to 15,706 yuan and 8,527 yuan, respectively, year-on-year increases of 14.6 percent and 17.9 percent – 9.1 and 9.8 percentage points faster than the growth rate of income.

In addition, the consumer price index in Xi'an only rose by 0.3 percent year-on-year. Of that, food prices grew by 1.6 percent, non-food prices remained flat year-on-year; consumer goods prices remained flat and service prices rose by 0.7 percent.