The Government is forecasting a 0.9% revaluation in public pensions in 2021, following the increase already applied this year. This would allow for ensuring pensioners’ purchasing power, as it is included in the 2021 Budget Plan which the Executive sent last Thursday to Brussels.
Feel Capital | Until September, the government will have pay out over €39.4 billion euros in benefits to the more than 9.8 million pensioners in Spain, as well as to people claiming widowhood, permanent disability, orphanhood and family favour benefits. As a result, it will be forced to take extraordinary measures this summer after the emptying of the pensions’ piggy bank.
The average replacement rate in Spain -which is defined as the average pension divided by the economy’s average salary – is 57.7%. This is the third highest in the Euro Zone, 13.6 points over the Euro Zone’s average and 7.2 and 15.7 points higher than that in France and Germany, respectively. Funcas’ experts agree that the replacement rate, one of the highest in Europe, will need to be reduced.
The European Commission (EC) urged the Spanish government to “carefully” evaluate the potential impact of any modifications to the 2012 labour reform and to “preserve “the most positive aspects of it, which “supported solid job creation” during the recovery phase. Citing a recent study from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it states that “the labour reforms adopted in 2012-13 in response to the crisis have played an important role in promoting a rich recovery in employment which began in 2014.”
The real estate investment, excluding the purchase of the first or second residence, has reached maximum levels since 2007 in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to the latest survey of the confidence of the Spanish investor of the manager J.P. Morgan AM.
Spain’s central bank highlighted the need for structural changes in the public pension system to ensure its long-term viability, while warning against the reversal of those already made. According to a simulation exercise presented by the entity, the revaluation index introduced after the 2013 reforms, which decoupled the rise in pensions from CPI, was the main reason behind lower pension expenditure.
Jean-François Jolivalt (La Française AM) | The more than 40 days of protests and transport strikes in France against the pension reform proposed by the French Government is an unprecedented event in the recent history of France. Strikes are undoubtedly a burden on consumer confidence. However, the population has adapted to the situation thanks to electronic commerce, distance work, carpooling and car sharing, which are all services or alternatives that are now widely accepted and available.
The first ministers cabinet meeting in Spain on Tuesday approved the rise in pensions by 0.9%. The increase will be applied retroactively from January 1 and will affect more than 10 million Spaniards, both contributory and non-contributory and passive class pensions. It will cost the Spanish coffers 1.4 bn euros.
BancaMarch | The European Commission warns that Spain is moving away from the adjustment path and asks for measures that compensate the alignment of pensions with prices.
Moody’s warns that a broad reversal of reforms, especially of pensions or the labour market, would exert downward pressure on its rating for Spain.