Romania's Government raised state pensions by 20% right before this year's elections
The Government of Romania decided today to raise state (public)
pensions by 20% starting this November, Romania's prime minister
Calin-Popescu TARICEANU announced today. He added that the average
public pension will be raised by 20%, to reach 678 RON (191 EUR) in
November this year. State pensions have already increased by 55% in the
last year, but the average pension in Romania is still very low today -
only 159 EUR. The general (parliamentary elections) in Romania will
take place on the 30th of November.
So the Government had reasons to raise the public pension in advance, just to catch this year's elections with freshly raised public pensions for about 5 million Romanian pensioners. The previous raises of the public pensions (55% June 2008 against June 2007) already put a lot of pressure on the social security budget of Romania, and yet the average pension is still quite low, as data shows.
But the country's continuous economic growth (Romania is currently in its 9th year of continuous economic growth) brought a raise in the number of employees, in wages and thus allowed public pensions to be raised to the current levels. Currently, the average public pension in Romania (159 EUR) represents about 45% of the country's average net wage (364 EUR).
