Chinese province offers $31,000 baby loans to counter shrinking population
A Chinese province with one of the fastest-shrinking populations is rolling out special loans to encourage couples to marry and have babies, as the rapidly-aging country tries to reverse a slump in births.
Jilin province in northeast China will support banks to provide up to 200,000 yuan ($31,400) of “marriage and birth consumer loans” to married couples, according to an official blueprint on policies to promote population growth.
There were no details on how the government would offer support, but the proposal includes discounted interest rates for the loans that vary according to the number of children a couple has.
China’s birth rate has rapidly slowed over the past few years, as fewer and fewer people have children.
That slump has continued, despite the government effectively abandoning any limit on the number of children a couple can have and trying to make it less expensive to raise a family, with some demographers estimating the population may have already started shrinking.
Other measures in the Jilin policy include allowing couples from other provinces to obtain a residence permit — known as hukou — and access public services in Jilin, if they have children and register them there.
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