VARAZDINSKE TOPLICE, June 7 (Hina) - The ratio of employed persons to pensioners which is currently 1.3 to 1 must be changed, or there will be no rise in pensions, said Croatia's Minister of Social Welfare and Labour, Davorko Vidovic,
on Thursday. Social costs in 2000 accounted for some 26 percent of Croatia's Gross Domestic Product, and this was a heavy burden on the state, Vidovic said at a conference on these problems organised in the northern spa of Varazdinske Toplice. The minister added that the purpose of reforms in the pension and social system was to set up an economically viable and effective system of social security. The pension insurance is in a crisis, said an official of the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute, Ljiljana Marusic presenting figures which show that there are now 1,399,000 pensioners in the country and that the average pension is 1464 kuna (approximately 172 U
VARAZDINSKE TOPLICE, June 7 (Hina) - The ratio of employed persons
to pensioners which is currently 1.3 to 1 must be changed, or there
will be no rise in pensions, said Croatia's Minister of Social
Welfare and Labour, Davorko Vidovic, on Thursday.
Social costs in 2000 accounted for some 26 percent of Croatia's
Gross Domestic Product, and this was a heavy burden on the state,
Vidovic said at a conference on these problems organised in the
northern spa of Varazdinske Toplice.
The minister added that the purpose of reforms in the pension and
social system was to set up an economically viable and effective
system of social security.
The pension insurance is in a crisis, said an official of the
Croatian Pension Insurance Institute, Ljiljana Marusic presenting
figures which show that there are now 1,399,000 pensioners in the
country and that the average pension is 1464 kuna (approximately
172 US dollars).
The means allocated monthly for pensions come to 1,950,000,000
kuna, and they are secured from contributions and the state budget.
A share of the public spending for pensions is 14 percent of the GDP,
and therefore it is necessary for the country to launch a reform in
this sector, Marusic added.
She said the chief causes of such a situation were the state of
affairs in the economy, a decrease in the number of those who had
jobs, the doubling of the number of retirees in the last 20 years,
the war in the early 1990s and de-population.
The implementation of the pension reform, defined in 1999 by the law
on the pension insurance, should start as of 1 January 2002.
The reform is based on three pillars: the first is the compulsory
insurance, the second refers to the injection of more means for this
purpose by insured persons and the third is about voluntary pension
insurance.
(hina) ms