China/growth rate - 2 (urban unemployment now at 10 pct - World Bank)

In a report on the Chinese economy, the bank said urban unemployment has tripled to at least 10 pct over the last five years.  That contrasts with official Chinese figures, which put the urban unemployment rate at 3.1 pct.	    The bank said prospects for employment and poverty are bleak, given the continued need for corporate restructuring and the likely effects of WTO accession.	    Chinese state-owned enterprises have shed some 14 mln workers over the past two years, and while the pace of lay-offs might have slowed, the overall labour market situation does not show many encouraging signs. 	    Reforms in the financial sector continue to be slow, partly held hostage to developments in the SOE and social security sectors, the bank said.	    Consequently, even though growth in 2000 was higher than expected, recent data has brought China's economic vulnerabilities - the rural economy, a global slowdown, slower-than-expected financial reform and the impact of WTO accession - into sharper focus. 	    The bank also said that although China has made "spectacular gains" in reducing poverty between 1990 and 1996, improvements in the living standards of the poor are slowing.	    Although there is some evidence that rural household consumption may have been protected by China's fiscal stimulus programme, the rate of increase in urban real income has grown at more than double the rate of real rural income, exacerbating rural-urban income inequality.    

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