Latest statistics show increasing parity, though doubts still remain

China's Gini coefficient index declined for the fifth consecutive year in 2013 to reach 0.473, according to figures disclosed by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

The result is based on 400,000 households surveyed throughout the country.

The Gini coefficient index, as defined by the World Bank, measures the extent to which the distribution of income or expenditure among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. A Gini index of 0 represents perfect equality and an index of 1 represents perfect inequality.