HONG KONG, Jan 9 Reuters China39;s population likely dropped for a second consecutive year in 2023 due to a surge in COVIDrelated deaths after the country abruptly ended strict lockdowns, while weak confidence in the economy39;s prospects keeps birth rates depressed.

Demographers estimate population data on Jan. 17 to show the number of new births in 2023 falling below the 9.56 million in 2022 as longstanding issues such as gender inequality and high childcare costs remained largely unaddressed. China39;s birth rate has been declining since 2016.

Further denting appetite for babymaking, youth unemployment hit record highs, wages for many civil servants and whitecollar workers fell, and a crisis in the property sector, where more than two thirds of household wealth is stored, intensified.

The data will add to concerns that the world39;s secondlargest economy39;s growth prospects are diminishing due to fewer workers and consumers, while costs with elderly care and retirement benefits put more strain on indebted local governments.

The slowerthanexpected economic recovery and the uncertainty of the future in China play a bigger role in fertility than any positive effect coming from lifting COVID curbs, said Xiujian Peng, senior research fellow at the Centre of Policy Studies at Victoria University in Melbourne.

Demographers expect deaths to have risen sharply, as the COVID19 virus swept through China39;s 1.41 billion population early last year after Beijing…