Pension system near bankruptcy

A pilot social security system being run in Liaoning province has run short of money, forcing the government to divert funds budgeted elsewhere and hampering other reforms, Wall Street Journal said. The reason for the shortage of funds is that planners overestimated the ability of state enterprises to pay their contributions and failed to create a system to compel private firms to participate. The government had planned to raise funds by selling shares in state-owned enterprises but the programme has been frozen after it caused a slide in share prices.