The income of the richest top 1 percent of Americans declined 18 percent in 2001 resulting mainly from the plunge of stock market and economic recession, the New York Times reported Saturday.

The top 1 percent of the wealthiest American citizens reported 1.09 trillion dollars of income in 2001, down from 1.34 trillion dollars in 2000, the paper quoted a latest report by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as saying.

Meanwhile, the minimum income to reach the richest top 1 percent in the United States declined to US$293,000 in the year from US$313,500 in 2000, but almost identical to the threshold in 1999.

Some analysts said the sharp decline in incomes at the top 1 percent "is obviously due to the collapse of the stock market boom and the recession".

The IRS report also showed that the US federal tax revenue fell 9.4 percent in 2001 mainly because the incomes of those at the top, who pay the highest tax rates, dropped sharply.

Taxes paid by the top 1 percent group declined to US$300.1 billion in 2001 from US$366.9 billion in the previous year. The drop accounted for the most part of the decline of US$92.7 billion in US individual income tax revenue in 2001.

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