Fewer working Asians will hit growth worldwide: Moody’s
NEW DELHI : Six major Asian economies, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, which comprise one-fifth of the world’s population, will experience rapid decline in their working-age populations that is expected to drop about 10 percentage points by 2050 to 59% of their total populations on average, leading to major impact on global economic growth, Moody’s Investors Services said in a report on Wednesday. The drag on growth and public finances for these economies will be significant, barring gains in productivity, workforce participation or quality of available labour, said the report titled “Aging in key economies will drag on growth and finances, with global credit implications".
Given the role of several of these economies in driving international savings, Asia’s demographics as a result will also have global implications for interest rates and inflation, it added. Interestingly, the demographic data from the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) “State of World Population Report, 2023" estimates India’s population at 1.4286 billion against 1.4257 billion for China.
India and China together account for more than one-third of the estimated global population of 8.045 billion, the population growth in the Asian giants has been slowing, at a much faster pace in China than in India. However, unlike India, China has a larger ageing population.
Growth will slow across the board, with China facing the greatest erosion, the report said. “Aging populations and slower productivity growth will dampen potential growth, especially for China, followed by Singapore and Korea.
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