Greece to hike pension age in drive to face crisis
Greece announced yesterday that it will raise the average rate of retirement by two years to 63 by 2015, as part of a spate of measures intended to clean up its loss-making public sector.
“There will be a two-year increase of the limits on the average rate of retirement... namely 63 years on average for men and women by 2015,” Labour Minister Andreas Loverdos told the media at the end of a series of intense meetings at his a ministry in Athens.
“We are changing the pensions system in order to keep it alive,” he said.
The maximum retirement rate is currently 65 for men and 60 for women, and Greece is under pressure by the European Union to bridge the gap.
The minister also pledged to bring an end to voluntary retirement schemes that have cost the cash-strapped Greek state dearly. “There will be an end to voluntary retirement,” he said.
The pension reform is part of a cost-cutting plan by Greece’s hard-pressed Socialist government which is struggling to slash a debt mountain expected to hit over €290 billion this year.
Loverdos is trying to save €4.5 billion this year from a social budget burdened by years of mismanaged spending by social funds on medicine and hospital bills.
Greece’s main private sector union GSEE is staging a nationwide strike on February 24 in opposition to the pension reform. Thousands of civil servants targeted for bonus cuts are holding another one-day strike today..
