Minsk, Oct. 21 (Interfax) - The Belarusian government is planning to increase pensions by approximately 20% starting from Nov. 1, country's Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Tozik said.
"We are planning to significantly raise pensions as of Nov. 1. They will rise, I cannot say exactly right now, let’s say by about 20%," Tozik told the upper and lower houses of the Belarusian parliament in Minsk on Friday.
The republic needs to raise the retirement age, he said.
"I think that we need to consider raising the retirement age, but in a way that makes a person keen on it and pensions higher," Tozik told journalists in Minsk on Friday.
Belarus is studying the experience of Ukraine, which recently raised the retirement age, he added. "But there will be no hasty movements. We will be working out and proposing to the president the format that is most acceptable and bearable for society, the country and our citizens," the deputy prime minister said.
Today there are just four million working citizens per 2.5 million pensioners in the republic, and this ratio will worsen in the coming years, he said. This is why the review of the retirement age should not be delayed, Tozik said.
