China’s Economy Could Be Derailed By Its Growing Number Of Grey Hairs

 

Putting off marriage and childbirth due to cost of living pressures is deterring Chinese women from having babies, worsening China’s demographic crisis, according to research published this month by authorities in the central province of Hunan.

China’s population shrank by 850,000 last year, representing the first decline in more than 50 years.

About 14% of China’s population is now over 65. The deepening demographic crisis is set to introduce a series of serious problems to the country’s economy. In fact, a number of economists fear China will get old before it gets rich.

The Hunan People’s Congress warned that most cities in the province had failed to urgently address their declining birth rates, with a survey finding that only four out of 14 had rolled out detailed plans to boost births by the end of April — against a previous deadline of end-2022.

The Chinese government is well aware of the crisis. In 2016, it abandoned the one-child policy, replacing it with what is now a three-child limit. Some provinces have abandoned restrictions on family sizesaltogether, among a raft of measures to encourage women to have more babies.

This year state media said Beijing was working on plans to raise the age, without specifying when this would happen.