CHINA INEQUALITY WIDENS

The IMF reports in its morning press briefing:

China`s income gap widened in the first quarter of the year, with 10% of the nation`s richest people enjoying 45% of the country`s wealth, state press reports said Saturday, AFP reported from Beijing. China`s poorest 10% had only 1.4% of the nation`s wealth, the Xinhua news agency said, citing a recent survey by the National Bureau of Statistics. "There are two gaps that need to be addressed," Li Xiaoxi, head of the economic and resource management institute of Beijing Normal University, was quoted as saying. "The first is the very wide gap between different social groups. The other is the astonishing economic development gap between regions."