China mulling subsidies for two-children families
The Chinese government is considering an option to encourage families to have more than one child, after decades of restrictions on those wanting to have large families.
Up until 2015, China had a strict policy of one child per family in order to slow down its birthrate, but now the government is exploring options to increase the rate.
China Daily newspaper reported on Tuesday that health minister Wang Peian had announced the government's intention to look at offering subsidies to parents who have a second child.
Despite the family planning restrictions being lifted in 2015, research presented by the government suggests 60% of families still do not want to have more children based on financial pressures.
"That fully met the expectations, but barriers still exist and must be addressed. To have a second child is the right of each family in China but affordability has become a bottleneck that undermines the decision," Wang stated.
China's birth rate hit record levels in 2016, with 17.86m babies being born in the year, over one million more than in 2015.
Nonetheless, the annual rate of population growth in China was 0.5% in 2015 according to figures from the World Bank, below the so-called replacement rate, versus 0.8% in the United Kingdom and the US.
In the euro area the equivalent rate was 0.2%.
Authorities in the country estimate that around 400.0m births were prevented by China's family planning policy, and the new subsidies would mark a complete turnaround in policy from the ruling Communist Party.
China has benefited for many years from having a comparably young workforce compared with many other trade competitors, but is now feeling the effects of the policy implemented in the 1970s.