Experts warned of the rising income gap brought about by a booming economy, after a recent report showed a nine-fold increase in the number of China's high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in the past 10 years.
The 2017 China Private Wealth Report, published by China Merchants Banks and consulting firm Bain & Company on Tuesday, shows that the number of the HNWIs, referring to those who possess investable assets of more than 10 million yuan ($146,366), grew to 1.58 million in 2016, compared with that of 180,000 in 2006.
The private investable assets in China stood at 165 trillion yuan in 2016, and will grow to 188 trillion yuan this year, according to the report.
Hu Xingdou, a professor of economics at the Beijing Institute of Technology, told the Global Times that the research points to a healthy development of the Chinese economy, with the financial and investment industry witnessing rapid rise during this period.
"The surge in HNWIs indicates that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening and problems in wealth distribution still persist," said Hu.
The HNWI group mainly comprises of entrepreneurs, second generation rich and gold-collar workers, according to the report.
There were 55.7 million people living in poverty in rural area at the end of 2015, according the State Council.
Guo Tianyong, head of the Chinese banking industry research center at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, told the Global Times the gap shows that a stronger supervision of the market is needed and that "the rich people need to be prevented from using their privileged position to gain more wealth via improper means."
Hu also pointed out that relevant inspections of the wealthy group should be further strengthened, while the poor population should receive more benefits especially in medical and elderly care.
China's Gini coefficient, an inequality index where zero refers to perfect equality, rose to 0.465 in 2016 from 0.462 in 2015, after dropping seven years in a row, Ning Jizhe, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in January.
