January 2024
08Jan

Romanian private pension funds’ assets up 31.4% y/y in 2023

Assets held by Romania's seven mandatory private pension funds in 2023 rose 31.4% to 126.7 billion lei ($27.87 billion) while the average yield climbed to a record high 17.94%, the industry's association said on Monday. The European Union member state overhauled its communist-era pension system in 2008, making it compulsory for working Romanians under 35 to contribute to a "second pillar" of private pension schemes as well as their state pension. Roughly 8.1 million Romanians contribute to the seven funds, which...

January 8, 2024
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November 2023
24Nov

Romania Pension Law Could Pose Medium-Term Fiscal Risk

Romania’s new pension law could result in a less favourable sovereign debt trajectory and weaken fiscal credibility over the medium term if implemented as planned and without offsetting measures, Fitch Ratings says. The eventual impact will depend on the broader direction of fiscal policy, including efforts to exit the ongoing Excessive Deficit Procedure. The new law, which received parliamentary approval on 20 November, is intended to remove inconsistencies in how state pensions are calculated as part of efforts to improve...

November 24, 2023
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16Nov

Romania’s Senate endorses 40% pension hike as of September 2024

Romania’s Senate passed on November 14 the government’s draft law on the public pension system, according to which the pensions of over 4.7 million beneficiaries are to be recalculated according to a new formula, Bursa.ro reported. The project will also be debated by the Chamber of Deputies, the decision-making body in this case. The pensions will increase on average by 40% when the updated pensions are first disbursed in September 2024, according to estimates of the bill’s author, the Labour Ministry. The...

November 16, 2023
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August 2023
03Aug

Romanian Constitutional Court sends law altering special pensions back to Parliament

The Constitutional Court of Romania discussed on Wednesday, August 2, the changes made in Parliament to the Law on special pensions, deciding to return it to the legislative for modifications. On June 29, the High Court of Cassation and Justice referred the Law amending and supplementing certain normative acts in the field of service pensions, as well as the normative act on raising the retirement age, to the Constitutional Court. The project in question brought changes to the special pensions for...

August 3, 2023
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November 2022
22Nov

Romanian govt to hike pensions by 12.5% from January -ruling coalition

Romania's ruling coalition will hike state pensions by 12.5% from January and make cash payments to low-income pensioners throughout the year to help the country's most vulnerable cope with surging inflation, party leaders said late on Monday. The cash payments will vary in size for pensions under 3,000 lei ($622.55) per month, the leaders of the three governing coalition parties agreed. In addition, pensioners with under 1700 lei per month will receive social vouchers worth 250 lei every two months, a...

November 22, 2022
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November 2021
04Nov

Romania labor minister announces pensions increases in January

Romania's Government plans to increase pensions by at least 6% next year while child allowances will go up by 20% from January 1, 2022, the interim labor minister, Raluca Turcan, said on Monday, November 1. "A realistic and sustainable budgetary effort for next year means an increase in allowances by 20% from January 1, so an overall increase in expenses of about RON 350 million per month, in addition to this year's expenditure. Also, pensions will be indexed by at least...

November 4, 2021
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January 2021

27Jan

Romania. Head of RO pension funds association says too much disclosure has downsides

The pension funds managers will comply with the requirements of disclosing their portfolios every quarter, but this might have an anti-competitive effect, says Radu Craciun, CEO of BCR Pensii and head of the private pension fund managers' association APAPR. The financial market regulator ASF took such a step after public criticism about NN Pensii, the biggest pension fund manager in Romania, investing in bankrupt German company Wirecard. "I have mixed feelings from the quarterly reporting. I can understand the...

January 27, 2021
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September 2020

30Sep

S&P warns Romania planned pension hike could derail economy

S&P Global Ratings warned Romania on Tuesday that a move by parliament to reinstate a massive 40% raise in pensions would prompt a disorderly fiscal correction just as the economy is struggling with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Romania's parliament voted this month to raise all state pensions by 40%, undoing a smaller 14% hike by the centrist minority government and opening the way for potential ratings downgrades two months before a parliamentary election. The government, which has...

September 30, 2020
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24Sep

Romania MPs Undermine Austerity Drive With Huge Pension Hike

Romania’s parliament on Tuesday dealt a major blow to the centre-right government’s push to keep the public finances in order by amending the budget to raise pensions by a whopping 40 per cent, instead of 14 per cent, as the original legislation envisioned. Increasing pensions by 40 per cent is an old promise of the opposition Social Democratic Party, PSD, which has the largest number of seats in parliament and tabled the amendment. Besides the PSD, which made...

September 24, 2020
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21Sep

Romania. The Evolution of the Private Pensions Market in the First Six Months of the Year 2020

The value of the total assets under management, at the level of the entire private pensions system, has reached the amount of 68.57 billion RON, at the date of 30.06.2020, exceeding in Euro equivalent the value of 14 billion, increasing by 6.31%, as compared to December, 2019. Moreover, the share of private pensions in the Gross Domestic Product[1], at the end of June, 2020, was of 6.39%, above the level of December, 2019. 'The economic context in the first...

September 21, 2020
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