The average household monthly income in Hong Kong rose 7 percent to 16,500 HK dollars (about 2, 130 U.S. dollars) during the first quarter of 2006 from a year earlier, driven by the robust economy, reveal latest statistics released on Thursday.

Meanwhile, 2.29 million families were recorded in the cosmopolis lived by some 7 million people in the first three months, a year-on-year increase of 1 percent, said the Census and Statistics Department in the Quarterly Report on General Household Survey for January-March 2006.

With the entire economy growing by 8.2 percent, the first quarter also saw increased job opportunity with only 180,500 people unemployed, a 14 percent fall compared with the same period last year, according to the quarterly report.

The number of people who have found jobs rose 2 percent to 3.42 million in the first three months, according to the quarterly report.

Source: Xinhua