Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation, Pensioners

International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Thursday, 28.03.2024, 14:37

International lenders may have demanded that retirement age be raised sooner than planned in Latvia

Nina Kolyako, BC, Riga, 16.12.2009.Print version
The Welfare Ministry believes that the retirement age in Latvia could be raised only after 2016, when the economic situation normalizes in the country, while unofficial information suggests that the international lenders to Latvia want this to happen already in 2012, as the newspaper Neatkariga writes today.

Uldis Augulis.

In order to receive the next part of the international loan, the Latvian government yesterday agreed to start increasing the retirement age from 2012. The ruling coalition chose to unquestioningly do whatever the International Monetary Fund told it to do, whereas the People's Party did not participate in the ruling coalition's meeting with the IMF representatives yesterday, Neatkariga informs.

 

The Latvijas Avize newspaper reports that the memorandum that the coalition parties signed with the IMF in July stated that a strategy for reforming the pension system in Latvia would have to be drawn up by July 1, 2010, but the memorandum did not mention a specific year when the retirement age would have to be increased, writes LETA.

 

Welfare Minister Uldis Augulis (Union of Greens and Farmers) told Neatkariga: "They have not asked anything in particular from us." According to the minister, the reforms are in Latvia's interest, the only thing that the IMF and the European Commission want Latvia to do is to stabilize the budget. "How we do it, that's up to us," the minister said.

 

Augulis confirmed that raising the retirement age is being considered now. However, this is nothing new, this idea was not proposed by the international lenders at the meeting with the ruling coalition yesterday, he added.






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