China will roll out a detailed plan by 2017 to raise the retirement age as it copes with the costs of its rapidly greying population. There will be an average of 1.3 people of working age for every retired person in China by 2050, human resources and social security minister Yin Weimin told a press conference at the National People's Congress yesterday. There are currently just over three working-age people for each retired person. And by 2050, people aged over 60 will make up 39 per cent of the population compared with the current 15 per cent, Yin said. For all the latest news from China’s parliamentary sessions click here The ratio by 2050 would put huge pressure on the country's pension system, he said, and it was inevitable that the retirement age would be raised. The current system, which was formulated in 1953, allows men to retire as early as 60 and women at 55. Yin said any adjustment would be "gradual", the retirement age raised by only a few months each year. But he did not say when the plan was likely to take effect. "The public has yet to reach a consensus on raising the retirement age ... The plan will be released to the public well in advance," he said. National pension funds still had an accumulated surplus of more than 3 trillion yuan (HK$3.8 trillion) by the end of last year, but regional imbalances were significant, the minister said. A Chinese Academy of Social Sciences report showed that in 2012, two-thirds of provincial government pension funds failed to balance the books, with Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces the worst off, each chalking up more than 20 billion yuan of debt. Heilongjiang governor Lu Hao said during a group discussion at the national parliamentary meetings in Beijing yesterday that the province had an average of only 1.42 workers to support each pensioner. NPC Standing Committee member Liu Binjie said at another press conference yesterday that China still had to further assess its population structure before deciding when it would allow all couples to have a second child. The nation partially eased its stringent one-child policy in late 2013, but the relaxed rules have yet to result in a baby boom.