29 March 2024, Friday, 9:33
Support
the website
Sim Sim,
Charter 97!
Categories

Pensions In Belarus: What Next?

29
Pensions In Belarus: What Next?

The authorities may not stop on the increase in the retirement age.

Among the plans for the next year, Finance Minister Maksim Yermalovich listed “an increase in pensions to 40% of the average salary”. The website Charter97.org asked economist Leu Marholin whether the authorities would succeed in implementing their plans.

- There are certain risks, because wages in our country are not growing due to an increase in the GDP, but due to a reduction in the number of employees. And this means that the resources of the Social Protection Fund do not grow as it should be. For this reason, the SPF is subsidized from the budget. It is not excluded that in order to increase this ratio it is necessary to increase subsidies from the budget. We will see this at the end of the year, when the budget will be drawn up.

- It has been suggested that the authorities can reduce other payments from the SPF and direct this money to pensions. Is such a scenario possible?

- I think that there is no big sense in such a redistribution. Despite the fact that the fund is divided into certain parts (sick leave payments, other social payments, pensions), but the money is spent the way it is spent. If you manage to save money in a certain year, then all these funds are used to pay pensions next year.

The budget does not subsidize certain directions, but the deficit of the fund as a whole. I think that over the years, the amount of payments that are made, for example, for sick leaves, has been formed. An artificial reduce thereof will not work. You can only reduce the time spent in the hospital, or reduce the percentage of the cost recovery.

- Is there a possibility that Belarusians will be offered to save for retirement?

- The pension system is sustainable when it consists of three parts. The first part is when workers pay for pensioners through the joint system, the second is cumulative, when pensioners themselves save something, the third part is insurance, which can be used in enterprises, among entrepreneurs, to encourage employees.

The problem is that for this you need to have a sustainable development and economic system, and most importantly - low inflation. Imagine that you have made contributions to your account in the pension fund, and over the year they have decreased by almost ten percent. And in a year, something will happen that has happened more than once: inflation of 20, 30 or even 100 percent. And your savings will be gone.

- It’s not that easy for the people with a small salary to save money for retirement …

- If the system was sustainable, I think that even with a small salary there would be people who think about the future. There is an informal system for raising funds through international pension funds. I know that many people use this opportunity. After all, people are confident that this money will be saved and even, possibly, will grow. The main thing is not to run into scammers.

- Will the “hole” in the SPF system increase?

- Here, the reduction of jobs in the country is of great importance. Let's say there is such a table “Hired and Dismissed from Work”. There are 70 thousand people the “hired” column, 100 thousand - in the “dismissed” column. This means that 30 thousand jobs are gone for good. Given such dynamic, the SPF resources will be reduced. This problem was caused by the decision to raise the retirement age. I do not exclude that the authorities will not stop on that.

Write your comment 29

Follow Charter97.org social media accounts