BEIJING - China's fast-falling birth rate has driven its top policymakers to further relax birth controls in the world's second-largest economy, but it may be too little too late to stop it from falling even more, warned analysts on Tuesday (June 1).

Even with the change to allow married couples to have three children - up from two - that arose out of a Politburo meeting on Monday, the third-child policy is unlikely to significantly delay the population peaking in around 2026, said The Economist Intelligence Unit's principal economist Yue Su in a note.