China ageing population to erode low-cost labour

BEIJING, Dec 18 (Reuters) - China's advantages as a low-cost labour market could be eroded by mid-century because of its rapidly ageing population, state media reported on Tuesday, citing the China National Committee on Ageing.

China has six people in the workforce for every retiree, but that ratio could narrow to 2:1 between 2030 and 2050, according to a committee population survey, its first since 2000.

"We might encounter the heaviest burden, especially after 2030, when the demographic dividend is set to end," the China Daily quoted Yan Qingchun, deputy director of the National Committee on Ageing, as saying.

"With fewer people of working age and more pressure in supporting the elderly, the economy will suffer if productivity sees no major progress," Yan said.

China's ageing population is growing at 3.2 percent every year, five times the total population growth, according to the committee's figures. The population imbalance is also exacerbated by strict family planning policies that limit most urban families to one child.

China is already home to more than half the old people in Asia and by 2050 its elderly are expected to exceed 400 million.

The greying population is also expected to put a huge financial strain on China's health care system and other support services.

Across the vast countryside, more than half of the elderly did not have any medical insurance and fewer than 5 percent received pensions, the report said.

(Reporting by Lindsay Beck, editing by Nick Macfie)