Rising pension levels to ensure senior citizens have no tension

Seventeen provincial-level regions in China, such as Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, and Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei and Liaoning provinces have issued notices raising local pensions. Other regions are expected to follow suit.

This rise in pensions for the 17th consecutive year is in accordance with the spirit of this year's Government Work Report and a notice issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance in April on adjusting basic pensions for retirees in 2021 by raising monthly pensions by 4.5 percent from the year before.

Since 2005, China has been adjusting pensions according to the rise in average wages and prices every year.

Given that there are a large number of insured people in China, a continuous rise in pensions puts more pressure on the fiscal budget. Latest data show that by March 2021, the number of people covered under basic old-age insurance nationwide had reached 1.007 billion.

Thanks to its rapid economic development for years, China's enterprise endowment insurance fund has accumulated a solid "wealth pool". According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, since the end of 2016, the State's pension fund has got a cumulative investment return of 200 billion yuan ($30.93 billion), with an average annual return rate of more than 6.8 percent. In 2020, the entrust investment of the basic pension insurance fund by 25 provincial-level regions reached more than 1.11 trillion yuan, with the investment yield rate exceeding 10 percent for many regions.

In order to ensure steady improvement in retirees' pension benefits, the country has accelerated the reform of the old-age insurance system. In July 2018, China established a central allocation system for old-age insurance funds and promoted the improvement of provincial pooling of old-age insurance.

At the same time, the Ministry of Finance is working with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security to formulate measures to support the development of other sources of old-age insurance, and comprehensively utilize tax incentives and other means to develop a multi-level and multi-source old-age insurance system and improve the old-age care level for insured people. This will help ease the country's pension payment pressures.

The rising pensions show the country wants everyone to share the fruits of economic development. With continuous economic development, pensions will continue to rise and the rights of retirees will be better protected.