HONG KONG, Sept 11 (Askume) – Chinese policymakers this week reviewed official plans to push back the country’s retirement age, a key step toward addressing the country’s declining working-age population.
The 11th meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress was held in Beijing, where NPC delegates held discussions, state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday.
China said in July it would gradually raise the retirement age to allow people to work longer to ease pressure on pension budgets as many provinces already face huge deficits.
Currently, the retirement age for men is 60, about six years lower than in most developed economies, while it is 55 for women in white-collar jobs and 50 for women in factory jobs.
Reform is urgent as life expectancy in China will increase from 44 years in 1960 to 78 years in 2021, and is expected to exceed 80 years by 2050.
“This is an inevitable choice for China to adapt to the new normal of population growth,” Mo Rong, president of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Sciences, told the People’s Daily.
China’s population has declined for two consecutive years and is expected to continue declining in the coming decades, increasing the pressure on the population to age rapidly .
National health officials estimate that the number of people over 60 will increase from 280 million to more than 400 million by 2035, equivalent to the current populations of the United Kingdom and the United States.
Every Chinese retiree now requires the contributions of five workers, a ratio that will reach 4:1 in 2030 and 2:1 by 2050.
According to Ministry of Finance data, 11 of China’s 31 provincial-level regions have pension budget deficits. The CAS government believes the pension system will run out of money by 2035.
