China: Government Raises Retirement Age To Fight Demographic Decline

February 28, 2016 | 20:30 GMT

Beijing announced plans to gradually increase the national retirement age between 2017 and 2022, according to a Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security official, Xinhua reported Feb. 28. At the moment, the female retirement age set between 50 and 55 while the male retirement age is 60. The population between ages 16 and 60 fell 4.87 million over the past year and now stands at 911 million. China's population is aging more rapidly than it is getting rich, giving rise to a demographic imbalance with important implications for the Communist Party's efforts to transform the Chinese economy and preserve its own power in the coming decade