Romania to Double State Pensions by 2022
Government plans to boost pension spending to $35.2 billion in four years.
In a move to eliminate discrepancies that have built up between various beneficiaries of the state pension system, Romania’s government has approved a plan to increase pension-related spending to 142 billion lei ($35.2 billion) by 2022, from approximately 62 billion lei this year.
The plan is expected to more than double state pensions over the next four years for the country’s 5.2 million retirees, according to Reuters.
Olguta Vasilescu, Romania’s labor minister, told reporters in Budapest that the government wouldn’t introduce new taxes, or enforce any cuts to support the plan, adding that the country’s GDP would expand every year over the next four years.
Vasilescu also said the budgetary impact will be 8.4 billion lei in 2019, and that under the plan, all state pensions would increase with inflation plus 50% of the real growth in average wages after 2022. The average state pension in Romania is approximately 1,100 lei ($272) a month, which is among the lowest in Europe.
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