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Slower population growth helps China's economic development

Posted on: Thursday, 24 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

Slower population growth helps China's economic development

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Slower population growth has been a great contributor to China's economic development, a United States expert from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) said on Tuesday.

At a press conference held to release the World Population Data Sheet 2003 Tuesday, Carl Haub, author of the study and Senior Demographer with the PRB, said the low birth rate has greatly helped China's economic development. He added that the annual economic growth rate of more than 7 percent was truly amazing.

According to the study, the structure of the global population is varying. "With every passing year, prospects for population growth in the more developed and less developed countries grow more dissimilar," said the PRB, a private research group.

On this year's Data Sheet, the total fertility rate for developed countries is less than half that in developing countries.

"The passage of time, as well as the difference in fertility rates, ensures that the two types of countries can expect to continue to have different population sizes in the future," said the bureau.

Among developed countries, the United States has a higher birth rate than European countries. For the European countries, aging is a problem and the declining population could be a serious matter for the economy, said Haub.

The solutions could be either to raise the birth rate or to have more immigrants, said Haub.

As to the African population, Haub cited AIDS as a big concern.

The PRB claims that it has been informing people about the influence of population on important social, economic, and political issues for more than 70 years.

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