PARIS -- China's rural poor have suffered a "sharp 6-per-cent drop" in living standards since Beijing's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, according to a World Bank report released yesterday.

The study consequently urged Chinese authorities to take steps to correct what it said has been an uneven distribution of benefits from WTO membership between rural and urban areas.

It found that market-opening measures and other economic reforms that came with WTO accession have been worth more than $40-billion (U.S.) a year to the Chinese economy and have added about $75-billion a year to real incomes worldwide.

"While China has experienced remarkable growth in its trade as a result of its WTO accession, it now faces the challenge of adjusting labour policies to improve productivity in the rural sector and to allow workers to move to more competitive sectors," said Will Martin, an editor of the study.

Its findings were based on a survey of 84,000 Chinese households.

While nearly 90 per cent of urban households reported income and consumption gains, rural households overall sustained an average income loss of 0.7 per cent.

"The poorest rural households . . . suffered a sharp 6-per-cent drop in their living standards, as measured by consumption, due to the combined effect of a drop in real wages and an increase in the prices of consumer goods," the World Bank said in a statement.

The report called for reforms to the system governing the movement of people from rural to urban regions. It said proposed reforms could boost rural wages 17 per cent and allow about 28 million people to leave the agricultural sector.

The study also urged increased education and stepped-up delivery of agricultural technology to help farmers increase productivity.