(Yicai Global) Feb. 3 -- Shanghai residents had the biggest purchasing power in China last year at an average of CNY79,610 (USD11,809) per person, according to the latest figures.

Residents in the capital Beijing were not far behind with CNY77,415 (USD11,483) each to spend at their discretion, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics yesterday.

Shanghai and Beijing are hubs for high-income sectors such as information technology, finance, scientific research and technological services, a market insider said. They are homes to a large number of big companies offering plenty of jobs at a good salary, resulting in the high per-capita income of residents, a market insider said.

Those living in southeastern Zhejiang province had the third-highest disposable income at CNY60,302 (USD8,942) while residents in eastern Jiangsu province, Tianjin near Beijing, southern Guangdong province and southeastern Fujian province all had disposable income of over CNY40,000.

But the biggest uptick in spending power was to be found in China’s central and western regions. The Tibet Autonomous Region logged the fastest growth in the country at 6.9 percent to reach CNY26,675 (USD3,955) per person. While those living in central Hubei and Hunan provinces, northern Shanxi province, southwestern Guizhou province as well as northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region all saw their disposable income swell by more than 6 percent.

China’s per capita disposable income, which refers to the sum of household expenditure and savings, grew 5 percent in 2022 from the year before to CNY36,883. Income from salaries jumped 4.9 percent to CNY20,590 (USD3,053) each, contributing 55.8 percent to overall per-capita disposable income.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Kim Taylor