Why assets alone won’t ease Asia’s demographic pressures

ONE in four people across the Asean+3 region – which includes China, Japan and South Korea – will be aged 65 or older by 2050, nearly treble the share recorded in 2010. Yet, the fiscal impact will vary enormously.

By then, population ageing is projected to create fiscal pressures equivalent to 0.9 per cent of gross domestic product in Indonesia and as much as 9.3 per cent in South Korea, reflecting the region’s sharply different demographic trajectories and levels of preparedness.

The conventional response is to depict a tale of two Asias: an ageing, asset-rich North, and a younger, capital-hungry South.