January 2021

22Jan

World Bank exposes economic and social impact of coronavirus in South Asia

Governments in South Asia, one of the poorest areas in the world, are ruthlessly imposing the burden of economic devastation created by the coronavirus pandemic onto the working masses. COVID-19 infections continue to wreak havoc, with the number of infections in the region climbing yesterday to a total of 12 million with 176,000 deaths in the region. Also Read: OECD launches MENA Pension Oultook report for the fisrt time Globally, the number of cases has hit 95 million with over...

January 22, 2021
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December 2020

17Dec

Bahrain chosen to launch global OECD Pensions Report for MENA region

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will be launching its seminal OECD Pensions Outlook Report 2020 in the MENA region for the first time, from the Kingdom of Bahrain. Read also South Africa. 1 600 municipal employees’ pensions have lapsed due to ‘non-payment of pension fund contributions’ The global organization which celebrates its 60th anniversary this week is considered to be the world’s largest think-tank and research centre on pensions. Last week, the OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, virtually launched...

December 17, 2020
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11Dec

Intergenerational Mobility of Health in India and Its Implications to Elderly Care

By E. Sownthara Rajan To understand the effect of education of children as an intervention to improve elderly health and suggest the sector of elderly who needs state support. This finding will help in locating a sector of elderly where the targeted geriatric care and elderly support can be provided. There is a prevalent conversation in academic literature about growing elderly population around the world which is estimated will be 22 per cent of the world population by 2050...

December 11, 2020
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08Dec

A silver lining for aging Asia

Many Asian economies will age more rapidly over the next several decades, including Hong Kong, Japan, mainland China, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Asia’s working-age population peaked in 2015 and will gradually decline at an accelerating rate in the coming decades. By 2050, the elderly population in these countries on average is expected to increase to 27% from 7% in 1995. Reduced labor supply creates a drag on growth, but this can be mitigated by higher labor participation,...

December 8, 2020
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07Dec

COVID-19 has worsened the woes of South Asia’s informal sector

By Maurizio Bussolo, Siddarth Sharma, Hans Timmer Informal employment, which includes temporary workers, day laborers, service, or domestic workers, has long been associated with underdevelopment. Following the same logic, informality is expected to disappear gradually as countries further develop and prosper. Yet, despite decades of sustained high growth, South Asia's informal sector shows little sign of abating—even increasing in some cases. More than 80 percent of all South Asia's workers engage in informal activities, and more than 90 percent of the...

December 7, 2020
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November 2020

27Nov

Pension and Health Services Utilization: Evidence from Social Pension Expansion in China

By Shanquan Chen, Xi Chen, Stephen Law, Henry Lucas, Shenlan Tang, Qian Long, Lei Xue and Zheng Wang The proportion of people aged 60 years or over is growing faster than other age groups. The well-being older adults depend heavily on their state of health. This study evaluates the effects of pensions on older adults' health service utilization, and estimates the size of pension required to influence such utilization. Using a nationally representative survey, the China Health and Retirement...

November 27, 2020
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25Nov

Malaysia is ageing, raise retirement age to 65 gradually, says World Bank

Rapid ageing will be one of the most crucial megatrends affecting Malaysia in the coming decades, raising policy challenges in areas such as employment, income security, health care, and aged care, the World Bank has said. In its report titled “A Silver Lining: Productive and Inclusive Ageing for Malaysia”, it said a gradual increase of the retirement age to 65 was needed as the country’s institutional framework for providing income security for older persons remained largely unchanged in...

November 25, 2020
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05Nov

Social Insurance, Demographics, and Rural-Urban Migration in China

By Neha Bairoliya, Ray Miller We develop a dynamic general equilibrium model to analyze the impact of social insurance policy and demographic changes on rural-urban migration in China. Quantitative analyses indicate that different social insurance programs not only have differential effects on net migration flows but also on the age and income distribution of migrants. Enrolling migrants in urban pensions discourages rural-urban migration at young ages and reverse migration in old-age. In contrast, urban health insurance incentivizes rural-urban migration...

November 5, 2020
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04Nov

Pace of outsourced Asia-Pacific assets to slow, report says

Assets outsourced to external money managers by institutional investors in the Asia-Pacific region are set to grow at an annualized rate of 9% over the five years through 2024, down from 12% over the five years through 2019, according to a report by fintech firm Broadridge Financial Solutions. The slowdown is partly in response to the fallout from COVID-19, including moves by some retirement systems in the region to allow members to draw down their retirement savings to get...

November 4, 2020
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04Nov

Thailand. NSF aims to provide sustainable pensions for all

The National Savings Fund (NSF) targets a 10-year return of at least 3% for long-term investment in order to provide fund members with sustainable pensions. The voluntary retirement savings fund targets informal workers, and currently holds investments totalling 8 billion baht. Since its inauguration in August 2015, the NSF has registered an average return of 3%, with last year's return at 4.4%, said NSF secretary-general Jaruluck Ruengsuwan. Year-to-date return is 1.6% because of the current domestic and international economic...

November 4, 2020
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