Measures limiting social contacts and the worst growth crisis in generations combined to prevent or dissuade people from having babies. The longer and more severe the recession, the steeper the fall in birth rates, says an expert. "The longer and more severe the recession, the steeper the fall in birth rates, and the more likely it is that a fall in birth rates becomes a permanent change in family planning,” said HSBC Holdings Plc economist James Pomeroy. If his forecasts pan out, “it’s going to lower potential growth rates and it makes high levels of debt less sustainable in the long term." Lower birth rates have also vastly outweighed whatever effect could have resulted from existing couples being kept indoors and in each other’s company.

Source: News 24 March 14, 2021 07:07 UTC