KUALA LUMPUR (March 2): China's per capita gross national income (GNI) declined in dollar terms for the first time in 29 years in 2023, Nikkei Asia reported on Friday, citing government data released on Thursday.

It said the data pulled China further from the World Bank's threshold for a high-income country.

The measure edged down 0.1% to US$12,597 (RM59,779) amid a sluggish economy and a weaker yuan.

GNI measures what is earned by individuals and companies at home as well as from abroad. It is calculated by adding net interest and dividends earned overseas to gross domestic product.

The World Bank's last annual revision of its income classifications in July raised the minimum per capita GNI for the high-income category by 5% to US$13,846.

Nikkei said China's GNI came in 9% short of that mark, after it narrowed the gap to just over 1% in 2021.

The report added that although China ended its economically painful zero-Covid policy early last year, a protracted slump in the real estate market continued to drag down the economy, and corporate profits and household incomes stagnated.

Per capita GNI rose 4.7% in yuan terms, but this was still a slowdown from the 5% increase in 2022.

The job market has been slow to recover as well. A total of 3.52 million people were eligible for unemployment benefits at the end of 2023, about 550,000 more than a year earlier and the highest figure in comparable data going back to 2012.

Yuan depreciation was also a factor in the downturn in dollar-denominated GNI.

The Chinese currency was 4.5% softer on average last year than in 2022, at 7.0467 to the dollar, on interest rate hikes in the US, as well as economic weakness at home.