As concerns about China's looming population decline intensify (stoked by news that the country's birthrate fell to its lowest level in 2020 since CCP record-keeping began in 1949), Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Monday morning that the Politburo has decided to allow couples to have up to three children.

It's not clear when the policy will take effect, but the meeting focused on policy changes that could be implemented in the period between now and 2025, and also included other important changes, like a commitment to "prudently lift the retirement age in a phased manner," according to Xinhua.

The decision to lift the maximum number of births is the biggest shakeup to the CCP's notoriously strict family planning policies since the Party abolished China's one-child policy back in 2015. But it's not exactly a surprise: Internal dissatisfaction with the population growth rate had led to top party officials openly discussing the shortcomings of the two-child policy with western media, a sign that a major rethink was likely on its way, as we pointed out back in January.

Now, that rethink has arrived just as China's all-important credit impulse has turned negative and concerns about GDP growth, which had already begun to slow even before the pandemic (remember 2019 saw the slowest growth in a decade), are prompting the Politburo to shake things up.