China Can’t Reverse Declining Birthrate, Top Economist Says
- Yao Yang says drop in births can’t be prevented in long-term
- Retirement reform likely to be gradual due to social pushback
This article is for subscribers only.
A recently-announced “three child” policy won’t prevent a long-term trend toward lower annual births in China, and the country will struggle to raise the retirement age by more than a couple of years by 2025, an influential Chinese economist said.
“I don’t think we can drastically raise the birthrate,” Yao Yang, dean of the National School of Development at Peking University, said in an interview. The government’s move to allow families to have three children could lead to a short-term increase in births, but “we cannot expect the effect to continue for a long time,” he said.