CNN: China's new three-child policy sends baby and maternity stocks soaring

"Shares of Goodbaby, which makes children's products, jumped 31% in Hong Kong. Suzhou Basecare Medical Co., which offers genetic testing for couples looking to undergo IVF, rose 15%."

China's government announced Monday (May 31, 2021) the relaxation of strict family planning restrictions and now allowing couples to have three children, per an official Xinhua post translated by Channel News Asia.

Starting three decades ago, China's central government planners have told married couples of the Middle Kingdom that "one child is enough."

But the central government planners were wrong. So in 2016, it allowed parents to give birth to a second child.

Now in 2021, the central government planners are wrong again.

At a meeting of the country's most senior officials, an agreement was reached for even greater relaxation of birth-control regulations, all in an attempt to help China fulfill its goal of "actively coping with an aging population."

Released in early May 2021, the once-a-decade census showed China is facing a deepening demographic predicament - will China grow old before it grows rich?

Only 12 million babies were born last year in China, a drop of almost 20% from 2019 and the country's lowest population growth since the 1960s when it was reeling from an extensive famine.

The Economist reports, at 1.3 children per woman, China's total fertility rate is already among the world's lowest. It is also well below the 2.1 necessary to keep a population from falling over time.

Officials now fear that the economic growth that has powered China to new heights will stall if more babies don't appear.

In 2012, after expanding for 50 years, China's labor pool reached peak employment and began to shrink.

Getting more babies will be a challenge.

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