Vientiane Municipality. Apart from Vientiane Municipality, there is a tendency towards convergence of average living standards across the other three regions. ‘Table 2: Per capita real consumption by region (in Mar 97- Feb 98 Lao urban Region 1992.93 1997-08 Growth rate Vientane municipality 29,765 44.75 79 Noah 225509 25710 a7 Cental 26647 : 27.782 0 ‘Sout 25,983 27.966 1 Lao POR 25,408 20,886 25 ‘Note: Central region does not incide Vientiane municpalty (in hi and all subsequent Tables). Table 3 reveals the urban-rural differences in the per capita real consumption. As ‘expected, per capita real consumption in rural areas is much lower than in urban areas. More importantly, per capita real consumption in rural areas has been growing at the annual rate of 2.3 percent, whereas the growth rate in urban areas has been 5.1 percent. ‘Thus rural-urban disparities have widened between 1992-93 and 1997-98, which is clearly indicated by the fact that the rural per capita real consumption as a percentage of urban per capita real consumption declined ffom 73 in 1992-93 to 63 in 1997-98 (Table 4). Rural-urban disparity is particularly large in the southern region, where in 1992-93 rural per capita consumption was only 58 percent of the urban consumption. This ratio, however, increased to 66 percent in 1997-98 “(in Mar 87- Feb 98 Lao urban areas prices) ‘Urban areas Rural Areas, Region 1992.93 1997-98 Growth rate 199293 1997-98 Growth rate Ventine municipality 31,809 «48219, 83 zre7 37,318 90 Northern region 2758932275 aa 21462 (24,997 30 Cental region sa2r2 38,390 29 25278 28.291 os Souther region 4o0s4 39.407 03 26.087 23 Lao POR 32268 41.540 54 26.361 23 9