THE average salary of urban Chinese employees jumped 18.7 percent last year, the fastest growth in seven years, on growing profits and rising minimum salaries, domestic media said yesterday.

Chinese employees in cities earned 24,932 yuan (US$3,550) on average for the full year 2007, the China Business News reported, citing the National Bureau of Statistics.

In Beijing, employers in the securities, banking and aviation sectors offered salaries topping 100,000 yuan a year, more than five times those in industries such as textiles and agriculture, the report said.

The growth was mainly attributed to a rise in minimum salaries across the country in 2007 and rising profits, with those of major industrial companies surging 36.7 percent year on year, it added.

China ordered minimum wages to be raised twice in the past 12 months to ensure incomes kept pace with inflation.

Led by food price surges, consumer inflation hit an 11-year high of 4.8 percent in 2007 and has continued to rise this year.

(SD-Agencies)