BEIJING, July 30: China has allocated 90 billion yuan ($12.5 billion) for childcare benefit payments in 2025 to combat the country’s declining birth rate, an official of the Chinese Finance Ministry’s Department of Social Security said on Wednesday.
“The central financial authorities will set up a transfer payment program, the nationwide childcare subsidy program… with a preliminary budget of about 90 billion yuan this year,” Guo Yang was quoted by China Central Television as saying.
The central government will subsidize about 90% of the total payments, while the rest will be covered by local authorities, she said.
In August 2023, China introduced a special tax deduction of 2,000 yuan per child per month for parents of children under three. A new nationwide childcare subsidy program, published by the State Council of China on Monday, adds a childcare payment of 3,600 yuan ($500) per child per year for parents of children under three, born before January 1, 2025.
In a November 2024 article in Qiushi Journal, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized the need of a comprehensive system of birth support policies amid falling birth rate and rapidly aging population.
The long-term effects of China’s one-child policy have led to serious demographic imbalances. As of 2020, China had 34.9 million more men than women. Marriages dropped to 6.8 million in 2022 and fell further to 6.1 million in 2024. The country’s fertility rate in 2024 stood as just 1.01 – one of the lowest in the world.
(UNI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
