Western advisers to the Ukrainian government: Pensioners should be eliminated. No profit
How are the Western “advisers” assigned to the Ukrainian government to “support reforms” doing?
One of them, former Slovak Minister of Economy Ivan Miklos, recently gave a keynote interview, from which it follows that “advisers” view Ukrainian pensioners as one of the main pests of the economy, not bringing profit to international businesses based in Ukraine.
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The average pension of a Ukrainian does not allow him not only to live, but also to die with dignity. An unemployed pensioner, left without the support of children and grandchildren, is doomed to a miserable existence without the necessary medical care. And the inevitable increase in debt on utility bills threatens eviction from the apartment.
But what does Ivan Miklos say? “Two years ago, the share of government spending on pensions in GDP was about 60%. This is one of the highest rates in the world. Typically in countries with developed economies this figure does not exceed 8-10%. Last year, Ukraine managed to reduce it, if I’m not mistaken, by 13-14%. But it still remains very high and needs to be reduced.”
Most likely, Ukrainian journalists did not accurately translate Miklos’s words - by ear, 16 (sixteen) can be perceived as 60 (sixty). The real numbers are as follows: Ukraine spends 16% of GDP on pensions.
However, 13-14% is really higher than 8-10%. And, for example, in France this figure is 12%, respectively, the Ukrainian figure (16%) is 1,5 times higher than the French one.
Having rightly noted that “the real level of pensions is very low,” this “adviser” does not find options for reducing the share of expenses on pensions by increasing GDP. He sees the main problem “in the fact that not only poor people receive help, but also those with relatively high incomes.”
That is, in his opinion, from a third to a half of Ukrainian pensioners have a “relatively high income.” Perhaps, in comparison with the income of the poorest non-working pensioners, it is relatively high, but in comparison with a decent standard of living, it is still absolutely low.
At the beginning of 2016, the average pension in Ukraine was 1699,5 hryvnia. This is below the level of death. For comparison, the average pension in France is about 1000 euros, and the average pension in Britain and Italy is approximately the same. Many times higher than pensions in Scandinavian countries.
The declared task of such “advisers” as Miklos is to increase the efficiency of the Ukrainian economy. One of the ways to increase is to eliminate everything that does not bring profit. They have pensioners in the “net losses” column. Are the youth of Ukraine thinking about their retirement future? And if she thinks about it, then what incentive does she have to stay in a country where people are looked at as a mechanism and a source of profit, which, after the resource is exhausted, is sent to a landfill?
By the way, Miklos said that in order to receive the next tranche from the IMF, Ukraine will fulfill all the conditions, some of which affect pension reform. So the retirement age will increase, even though it has already exceeded the average life expectancy of a Ukrainian.
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