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China’s birth rate decline and economic growth slump in 2019 present new challenges after trade war deal
- Gross domestic product (GDP) growth was 6.1 per cent in 2019, a year in which the Chinese economy was hammered by US tariffs
- Some 14.65 million babies were born in China in 2019, down from 15.23 million in 2018, and the lowest number since 1961
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China's economic growth last year slumped to its slowest pace in 29 years, while the number of births fell to a near-six decade low, highlighting two key long-term challenges facing the country just days after the signing of a partial trade deal with the United States.
Gross domestic product (GDP) growth was 6.1 per cent in 2019, a year in which the Chinese economy was hammered by US tariffs. After months of negotiations and escalating duties on each other’s goods, China and the United States agreed on Wednesday to put the brakes on an 18-month trade war that has disrupted global supply chains and shaken markets.
But the partial tariff relief offered in the phase one deal does not alleviate deeper structural issues facing the world's second largest economy, including a looming demographic crisis and the prospect of a prolonged economic cooling off period.
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“The declining number of newborns may not necessarily hurt the economy much in the short term, but it casts a shadow over China's growth in two or three decades,” said Huang Wenzheng, co-director of cnpop.org, a website focused on analysing China's birth policy.
Some 14.65 million babies were born in China last year, down from 15.23 million in 2018, and the lowest number since 1961, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Friday. The birth rate fell to 10.48 per thousand, the lowest level since at least 1949 when the Communist Party took power.
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