China will enact policies to boost its birth rate, president Xi Jinping said on Sunday in a speech opening the once-in-five-year Communist party congress in Beijing. The decline in China’s population has been a major concern for the policymakers of world’s second-biggest economy.
“We will establish a policy system to boost birth rates and pursue a proactive national strategy in response to population ageing,” Xi Jinping said.
Even though China has a population of 1.4 billion- the most in the world- the country’s birth rates are set to fall to record lows this year, demographers have said. The births will drop below 10 million from last year’s 10.6 million babies, Reuters reported. In 2020, the births were 11.5% more than 2021.
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China’s fertility rate stood at 1.16 in 2021 below the 2.1 OECD standard for a stable population, making it among the lowest in the world.
China’s one-child policy which was imposed from 1980 to 2015 was switched to the three-child policy amid concerns over the demographic downturn as authorities have introduced measures such as tax deductions, longer maternity leave, enhanced medical insurance and housing subsidies. Extra money for a third child and a crackdown on expensive private tutoring have also been part of China’s push for its third-child policy.
