February 2022
17Feb

Retirement in America: Time to rethink and retool

By PWC A range of factors have put intensifying pressures on the US retirement system in recent years, leaving the industry facing a decelerating revenue growth outlook. A number of these challenges — fee pressure, underfunded retirement plans, an aging population — are structural and unlikely to ease. Many retirement players have been unable to outrun even one of these factors: fee pressure. Rising industry-wide fee pressure is placing constraints on the profitability of US retirement firms with average 401(k)...

February 17, 2022
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08Feb

Can aging population trends tame inflation?

By Larry Berman The Economist, one of my favourite weekly reads (or listens these days with audio features), highlights a recent paper examining the effects of demographic change on saving, Etienne Gagnon, Benjamin Johannsen and David López-Salido of the Federal Reserve Board suggest that aging in America may account for about one percentage point of the drop in interest rates since the 1980s. Other research has suggested it could be as much as three per cent. One thing is fact,...

February 8, 2022
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07Feb

The Silver Economy Gets a Covid Reality Check

French care-home operator Orpea was once a bet on better retirement. In an aging society, demand for long-term care would only rise — and so would demand for long-term returns, hence why Canada’s top pension fund bought a 15% stake in 2013. It was going to be the virtuous circle of the “silver economy” in action — retirement as an asset class. The virtuous circle now looks like a vicious one. After years of growth, some 3.4 billion euros ($3.9 billion) has been wiped...

February 7, 2022
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January 2022
31Jan

China rolling out perks to encourage couples to have 3rd child amid demographic crisis

Amidst a demographic crisis (/topic/demographic-crisis), China is happily rolling out a slew of supportive measures to encourage couples to have a third child. Fabien Baussart, President of CPFA (Center of Political and Foreign Affairs), in a blog post in The Times of Israel said that the new sets of incentives include perks such as baby bonuses, extended paid leaves, tax cuts and childbearing subsidies, among others. The Chinese authorities are pushing organizations and local administrations to offer handsome douceur to the...

January 31, 2022
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25Jan

Solving China’s population puzzle

China Daily's Chen Meiling interviewed Yuan Xin, a professor of demography at the Population and Development Research Institute, School of Economics of Nankai University in Tianjin, on the significance of the latest population data. Following are the extracts from the interview: Q: The Chinese mainland's population reached about 1.41 billion at the end of 2021, an increase of 480,000 over 2020, according to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics in mid-January. What is your view on the...

January 25, 2022
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21Jan

Germany wants to attract 400,000 skilled workers from abroad each year

Germany's new coalition government wants to attract 400,000 qualified workers from abroad each year to tackle both a demographic imbalance and labour shortages in key sectors that risk undermining the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. "The shortage of skilled workers has become so serious by now that it is dramatically slowing down our economy," Christian Duerr, parliamentary leader of the co-governing Free Democrats (FDP), told business magazine WirtschaftsWoche. "We can only get the problem of an ageing workforce under control with...

January 21, 2022
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19Jan

David Sinclair explains what an ageing population means for economies around the world

The world has been ageing for some time, according to David Sinclair, Director, International Longevity Centre, but policy has still not caught up to tackle the potential problems this may cause for the world. He says that an ageing population will have an impact on the future like at no other time in history and will change everything from cities, transport and consumption to relations between countries, and for that to be positive rapid policy changes are needed. The below interview...

January 19, 2022
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18Jan

Japan’s Sustainable Bond Market Helps Fund Aging Population

Japan is using the corporate bond market to tackle the challenge of having the world’s oldest population. Daiwa Securities Living Investment Corp. became the latest issuer to tap the market for social debt on Tuesday with the sale of a 10-year bond to refinance investments in facilities for the elderly at a coupon of 0.46%. Although the amount raised was only 2 billion yen ($17.5 million), the bond follows offers last year from Daiwa House Reit Investment Corp., United Urban Investment...

January 18, 2022
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17Jan

China’s birth rate drops to record low in 2021, population aging

The birth rate in mainland China slipped to a record low in 2021, government data showed Monday, despite efforts by the Chinese government to prevent the country's population from aging further. In China, 10.62 million babies were born in 2021, a rate of 7.52 per 1,000 people, the lowest level since Mao Zedong founded the Communist-led People's Republic of China in 1949. Read also David Sinclair explains what an ageing population means for economies around the world The population aged 65...

January 17, 2022
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Pensions and demographic risks
14Jan

Pensions and demographic risks

Different demographics of the population experience different pension risks, depending on age, location and various other factors. Read also Pensions in Germany: How the new government plans to solve an age-old issue Also, the fact that the UK population is getting older and living for longer could be viewed as a demographic risk in itself. Read also UK. Double tax whammy risk for big pension withdrawals As Jon Young, financial planner at WealthFlow, says: “Your pension pot has to last for longer and...

January 14, 2022
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