China may be nearing the ‘Lewis Turning Point’ at which it would no longer be able to achieve growth through its vast supply of competitively low-cost workers, according to an International Monetary Fund report.

A forthcoming peak and subsequent swift decline in its working age population could see it move to become a labour-short market, according to ‘Chronicle of a Decline Foretold: Has China Reached the Lewis Turning Point?'

The Lewis Turning Point is a notion created by St Lucian economist Sir Arthur Lewis, describing the moment in time when a country’s labour force is unable to meet the demands of an economy that has industrialised rapidly.

The article suggests that while higher fertility or labour participation rates, financial reform or higher productivity, among other factors, might delay the arrival at this point, it will likely arrive in 2020 or 2025.

A previous International Labour Organization report suggested that the labour force would start shrinking earlier, in 2015.

• With China currently a labour-rich economy, hear staffing firm Empresaria's chief executive officer Joost Kreulen’s description of how his company has switched its business model in the country.