China decided to increase this Friday the retirement age by up to five years due to increasing pressure from its ageing population and an economy in recession.
According to the criteria of
The new regulations establish that men will retire at the age of 63 years old, instead of the current 60, while office workers will do so at 60 58 years old, rising from 55.
The National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee approved the measure today following warnings that the pension system could run out of funds by 2035, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
For manual workers, the retirement age will be raised from 50 to 55, according to official sources.
Pressure on China’s pension system
This setting seeks to relieve pressure on the pension system by delaying payments and allowing older workers to continue contributing to the economy.
It is also expected to mitigate the decline in the workforce, which fell by 40 million over the past decade, to 879 million in 2020, according to the latest official figures.
The director of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security, Mo Rong, told the official People’s Daily that the decision was an “inevitable choice” for the country to adapt to its new demographic reality.
The low birth rate is reducing the total population, which could fall to 1.3 billion in 2050 and less than 800 million by 2100, according to UN estimates.
With life expectancy at 78.6 years in 2023 and a negative natural growth rate (-1.48 per thousand inhabitants), citing a report published by the National Health Commission of the Asian giant, raising the retirement age is seen as crucial. to mitigate the reduction in labor supply and relieve pressure on the pension system, according to experts who add that this reflects global practices in developed countries.
These measures are part of a broader package of reforms that includes other recently presented initiatives, such as recommendations to promote marriage and birth at a ““appropriate age” in response to the challenges of population ageing.
This announcement follows the proposal put forward at the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in July, which stressed the need to adapt to current demographic challenges, such as the population aging and low birth rate.
EFE
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