- China, the most populous country on the planet, could soon run out of workers due to China’s low birth rate of just 8.5 births per 1,000 people; the lowest since the data set started in 1978.
- It could have looming dire consequences for China’s economy and could even reshape the world’s economy, as the problem stands to destabilize a key engine of global growth.
- “Growth rates we’ve had historically aren’t coming back…It is downhill from here.” To paraphrase the famous 19th-century remark: when China sneezes, the world’s economy catches a cold.
Harry Robertson from Insider writes:
“It’s been a rocky year for the Chinese economy, what with the Evergrande crisis and COVID cases shutting down ports.
Yet any short-term issues pale in comparison to the demographic crisis grumbling away in the world’s second-biggest economy.
It could have dire consequences for China in the coming decades and could even reshape the world, as the problem stands to destabilize a key engine of global growth. It could even push up worldwide inflation.
In a nutshell: China, the country with the most people in the world, could actually soon run out of workers.
China’s birth rate hit a record low last year, according to data released by the country’s Bureau of Economic Statistics towards the end of November, with just 8.5 births per 1,000 people. That was the lowest since the data set started in 1978, and is likely the lowest since the 1940s.
At the root of the problem is China’s decades-old one-child policy, abandoned in 2016. Bringing up kids in China is becoming much more expensive and there’s been a major cultural shift, with women increasingly focused on their careers…”
See full story here.
Categories: Business, Economy, International
Economic Left 
Leave a Reply