Over 16 billion rubels allocated for pensions, no plans to raise retirement age – official

June 24, BPN. More than 16 billion rubels has been allocated for pension payments in Belarus in 2022, Deputy Prime Minister Ihar Pietryšenka told a meeting in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Belarusian National Assembly, on June 24.

“From a financial point of view, to ensure pension payments is a massive task for the state,” he said, according to a video disseminated by the government’s press service.

“Every fourth resident of our country is a pension recipient today. More than 16 billion rubels, or about 9% of GDP, have been allocated for this year’s pension payments,” he added.

The official said “in order to maintain pensioners’ real incomes,” recalculation of pensions was made on March 1, as a result of which they increased by 7%.

“The average pension of a non-working pensioner today is 583 rubels [some $230], or about 40% of the country’s salary. The decision to further increase pensions will be made taking into account the situation in the economy and, above all, based on the growth of workers’ salaries,” Pietryšenka said.

At the same time, according to the official, there are no plans to further raise the country’s retirement age.

A five-year pension reform ended in 2022, raising the retirement age to 58 years for women, and to 63 years for men.