Xi says China will seek to boost birth rate in the face of an aging population

China will enact policies to boost its birth rate, President Xi Jinping said on Sunday, as policymakers worry that an imminent decline in China's population could hurt the world's second-largest economy.

"We will establish a policy system to increase birth rates and pursue a proactive national strategy against population aging," Xi told about 2,300 delegates in a speech at the opening of the Communist Party Congress, held every five years in Beijing. Demographers say that although China has the world's largest population at 1.4 billion, births will fall to a record low this year, dropping below 10 million from last year's 10.6 million babies and down 11.5% from 2020. Recognizing that the country is on the brink of a demographic decline, the authorities implemented a one-child policy from 1980 to 2015, then switched to a three-child policy. The fertility rate of 1.16 in 2021 was below the OECD standard of 2.1 for a stable population and among the lowest in the world. Over the past year, the authorities have introduced measures such as tax cuts, longer maternity leave, improved health insurance, housing subsidies, extra money for a third child, and curbs on expensive private tutoring. Still, a survey published in February by the think tank YuWa Population Research showed that the desire to have children among Chinese women is the lowest in the world. Demographers say the measures taken so far are not enough. They cite high education costs, low wages and notoriously long working hours as issues that still need to be addressed, along with COVID-19 policies and economic growth concerns. Follow Global Economic Developments on Social Media! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Facebook account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Instagram account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Twitter account!