Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Shashankyoshi,

filling in for Jason Palmer. Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events

shaping your world. Central bankers are hardly known as tech pioneers, yet many of them

around the world are keen to launch their own digital currencies. If done well, that might

give millions of people access to bank accounts. If done wrong, it could cripple private banks

and enable government surveillance. And you might not think Roadkill is that useful,

at least if you're not a vulture, but scientists in Ecuador have found an ingenious use for

animals, splattered on the tarmac. We look at the benefits of counting carcasses.

Let's start, though.

The world's biggest country is still getting bigger, but not for much longer. Yesterday,

China released the results of its later census. It showed that the population had grown by

5% from a decade ago, to over 1.4 billion people. Yet it also revealed a sharp drop in

births last year, putting it on track to hit its peak population within the decade. That

slowdown will force the Communist Party to face up to some serious social and economic

challenges.

It's a once-a-decade census everybody was waiting for the results.

Simon Rabinavitch is our Asia economic seditor.

Initially, in fact, the government had said they would be out in early April. More than

a month passed, finally, they released them yesterday. So, you know, everybody has been

scrutinizing the numbers both for what they say and for potentially what they're covering

up.

And what did the Chinese authorities pull out of this and emphasize?

...