[Intime News]
The Greek social security system remains extremely generous in terms of the actual retirement age and the replacement rate of pensions, making it particularly costly, although within the general framework set by the European Union.
As demographic aging and the reduction of the workforce are expected to hit the Greek economy relentlessly in the near future, interventions in the pension system are considered necessary to maintain the adequacy of funds for pensions without public finances collapsing. The solutions are known: increasing the retirement age and linking it to life expectancy, strengthening the employment of older people, integrating women into the labor market, and implementing equal pay and employment conditions, as well as developing supplementary pension systems.
The new OECD report “Pensions at a Glance 2025” (published every two years) shows that the demographic “storm” that is also affecting Greece constitutes perhaps the greatest challenge for the local pension system and public finances. On average, in OECD countries there are 33 people aged 65 or over for every 100 people in the productive capacity (20-64 years old) – up from just 21 three decades ago. For Greece, the outlook is even more ominous: The report estimates that the ratio of elderly people to workers will skyrocket – with projections that bring Greece into the first category of countries in Europe – to 70 elderly people for every 100 workers, in 2050.
At the same time, the decline in births and the increase in life expectancy compose a mixture that threatens to undermine the sustainability of the “pay-as-you-go” system, where current workers support those who are already retired. As actuary professor Vasilis Betsis points out to Kathimerini, there is a significant decrease in the forecast for the future course of the fertility rate. In the report published on Thursday, the forecast until 2064 was revised from 1.50 children per woman to 1.44 children per woman, confirming the unfavorable demographic prospects of this country.