The gross reserve of China's social security fund has amounted to 2 trillion yuan ($298 billion) and the country will be able to pay pensions to the retired in full in a timely manner in the long run, a Chinese official said on Tuesday.
The comment came after a recent report said that China's national pension fund will run dry by 2035.
The Chinese government highly values the sustainability of pension funds and has drawn up a series of "active, comprehensive and scientific measures" to guarantee the payments and the sound operation of the system, Nie Mingjun, an official with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, told a press conference in Beijing.
Corporate pension fund operations remain stable with an increased balance, Nie said. The accumulated balance of corporate pensions funds reached 4.78 trillion yuan as of the end of 2018, and the country's strategic reserves of the social security fund stood at about 2 trillion yuan, according to the ministry.
The budget allocated by the central government for corporate endowment insurance rose 9.4 percent year-on-year to 528.5 billion yuan in 2019, and local governments also made corresponding fund arrangements, according to the ministry.
China's populaton is aging. By the end of 2018, the number of people above 60 years old reached 249 million, accounting for 17.9 percent of the country's total population, and those above 65 years old totaled 167 million, accounting for 11.9 percent of the total.
Nie said that given the context of an aging society, the dependency ratio has decreased, which means that there will be fewer people paying into the fund while more people withdraw money from the fund.
"If it continues without countermeasures, the country's pension system could be over-stretch," Nie noted.
The official said that more efforts are needed to ensure the system's sustainable growth, including helping regions that are struggling to make payments to cover their obligations.
"We are prepared to address future payment risks, and the sustainable development of the system can be secured," Nie noted.
