High contributions for pensions in relation to the social product and unfavorable demographic structure place Slovenia at the top of the list of European countries threatened by a “crisis after the crisis,” reported the Business Insider portal, whose conclusions were also conveyed by Slovenian media.
According to data from the European Commission in the report on population aging trends in the EU, Slovenia faces a collapse of the pension system as by 2035 it would need to allocate 15 percent of GDP to maintain the current pension system instead of the current 11 percent, and the number of working-age population would further decrease by 6.6 percent as early as 2020, Slovenian media reported.
Professor at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Economics, Maks Tajnikar, a former Minister of Economy, stated that despite such data he remains optimistic and that it is important not so much to reform the pension system as to increase GDP. Increasing GDP for the future stability of public finances is significantly more important than reforming the pension system, and if the current GDP of 35 billion euros increases to 50 billion, then there will be no problems with pension payments, Tajnikar assessed. (H)
