China achieved annual growth of 8.1% in 2021, the highest in nearly a decade, despite a real estate crisis and an epidemic rebound which are weighing on the recovery of the Asian giant.
Chinese growth, however, slowed in the fourth quarter (+4%), compared to 4.9% in the previous quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (BNS) said on Monday.
In addition, the birth rate in China fell last year to a historically low level, since at least 1978, according to official data published Monday, against a backdrop of uncertainties about the future and the cost of education.
The Asian country is facing a demographic crisis with a rapidly aging workforce, an economic slowdown and the country’s lowest population growth in decades.
The birth rate in the world’s most populous country was 7.52 births per 1,000 people in 2021, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). It was 8.52 per thousand in 2020.
This is the lowest level since at least 1978, when the Asian giant began publishing its annual statistics report.
China has relaxed its birth control policy in recent years. She allowed couples to have two children in 2016, then three since last year.
But these decisions did not lead to a birth boom. Couples are cooled by the rising cost of living, housing and especially the education of children.
In 2021, the country registered 10.62 million births, according to official data.
The rate of natural population increase plunged to 0.34 per 1,000 people last year, from 1.45 in 2000.
“The demographic challenge is well known, but the speed of population aging is clearly faster than expected,” said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.
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