Pensions to increase in Belarus from December 1st
During Labour and Social Protection Minister Irina Kostevich’s report, the President of Belarus noted that this year the Fund of Social Protection of the Population was operating with some surplus
“Why should we accumulate this money, put it in a jar, especially now? Therefore, I signed a decree to slightly raise pensions from December 1st. From this date, we will increase pensions for our people by 5-6 percent.”
The Head of State clarified “I must say that from the macro-economic point of view, on average, as is done all over the world, pensioners should not be offended in connection (twice we raised pensions) with a small increase in pensions, because this is an average. This is higher than the current inflation level. But if we take one more step, it will be an advantage over inflation. Although, you know, pensioners will hear my reasoning today and may say that, probably, the President doesn’t know the issue, since something has risen in price not by 10 percent, but by 20 percent. I underline that I mean the average value.”
The Belarusian leader stressed that he had addressed the issue of price control more than once, “I understand that pensioners don’t buy branded items. They live modestly and mainly buy food, simple clothes, and there, perhaps, prices for some groups of goods have risen by more than 10 percent.”
At the same time, the President does not rule out that for some commodity items the increase in pensions is lagging behind, “Therefore, a decision was adopted to regulate prices and develop a pricing system, enabling our people to feel that the state sees these problems and is trying to solve them. To what extent this is possible – we’ll see in December or January. Let’s get together and look at how efficiently the government and governors are working in the direction of price containment.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that pensions in the country are paid on time, and this is positively assessed by the population, “This is a trifle, but people are pleased when they see that we are paying this money on schedule. This is good. In this regard, we must act.”
