Lithuanian President Nausėda: pension raises must outpace wage growth

Can Lithuanian pensioners turn Lithuanian economy upside down?

Upon hearing the threats of Lithuania’s commercial banks what will happen to the economy if the ruling farmers and greens (LFGU) move forward with the proposal to tax bank assets, which is part of Lithuania’s plan to rake in additional 100 million euro for welfare spending, and the pensions, too, it may seem inevitable.

Low Lithuanian pensions

The average pension in Lithuania is currently 345 euros, however around 60 percent of venerable-age Lithuanians make ends meet with less than 300 euros a month. According to the Lithuanian Statistics, over a third of people over the age of 65 live in relative poverty.

According to Eurostat, in most of the 27 EU Member States for which 2017 data are available, the proportion of pensioners at risk of poverty lies between 10 per cent and 25 per cent. The four countries with an at-risk-of-poverty rate above 30 per cent in 2017 were Estonia (46 per cent), Latvia (44 per cent), Lithuania (37 per cent) and Bulgaria (32 per cent). In contrast, the lowest rates in 2017 were in France (7 per cent), Slovakia (8 per cent), Denmark, Hungary and Luxembourg (all 9 per cent).

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