(Yicai) April 22 -- Disposable income, or the amount of money an individual or household has left after paying taxes and mandatory deductions, averaged more than CNY10,000 (USD1,466) per person in 17 of China's 31 provincial-level regions in the first quarter of the year.

Shanghai led with CNY26,689 (USD3,912) per head in the three months ended March 31, followed by Beijing with CNY24,587 and Zhejiang province with CNY23,611, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on April 16. Jiangsu province, Tianjin, Guangdong province, Fujian province, Shandong province, Chongqing, and Liaoning province rounded out the top 10.

Average per-capita disposable income across China was CNY12,782 in the quarter, a nominal increase of 4.9 percent from a year ago. Excluding price factors, the real growth rate was 4 percent.

Chongqing, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and the provinces of Anhui, Hubei, and Hunan came out best in central and western China, with analysts pointing to the steady gains in industrialization and urbanization in these areas.

With technological innovation now serving as a core engine of growth, a number of modern industrial clusters are forming in strong provincial capitals and major cities across central and western China, the analysts noted, adding that this has driven a sharp uptick in employment, which in turn has lifted income levels.

Anhui, for example, ranked first nationwide last year for automobile production, new energy vehicle output, and car exports. The output of its local electronic information industry surged 41 percent, while industrial robot production jumped 35 percent, and the province ranked second in the country for robot exports.

In Hubei, high-tech manufacturing accounted for 36 percent of the growth in large-scale industrial output. Meanwhile, Wuhan’s Donghu New Technology Development Zone, better known as the Optics Valley of China, continued to expand its global reach.

Last quarter, the disposable income of urban residents across China reached CNY16,549 per person, up 4.2 percent in nominal terms and 3.2 percent in real terms. For rural residents, the figure was CNY7,433, representing nominal growth of 6.1 percent and real growth of 5.4 percent.

Editor: Martin Kadiev