--FILE--anziani il popolo cinese della chat in un parco nella città di Xuchang, porcellane centrale provincia di Henan, 3 novembre 2013. Dalla bolla immobiliare al governo
--FILE--Elderly Chinese people chat at a park in Xuchang city, central Chinas Henan province, 3 November 2013. From the housing bubble to government debt, economists who focus on China have a lot to keep them up at night. Now, add the prospect of an unfunded pension system to that list. For years, critics have charged the government with failing to adequately invest the country's national pension fund, raising the risk that current workers and future retirees who¯ve already paid into the system won't be able to receive payments. Just how badly has the government managed the fund? According to one researcher at a state think tank, if the government had managed such funds better, it could have made billions more over the past two decades. "The vast majority of the funds are sleeping at banks as deposits, " Zheng Bingwen, a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researcher, in a study published in September. China's total social security fund ¨C which consists of a variety of insurance funds, including medical and unemployment ¨Cstood at nearly 4.5 trillion yuan at the end of last year. Almost 60% of that is from the national and local pension fund, official data showed. According to Mr. Zheng, a mere 1.6% of the social insurance fund, or 71.1 billion, has been put into government bonds or invested at all, Mr. Zheng said.
