6,000 pensioners from Transnistria projected to die

The Tiraspol parliament considers a draft law on pensions for the next year. The regional MPs envisage that the incomes in the pension fund will be some 1.25 billion Moldovan lei. The expenses are going to rise to an equivalent in Transnistrian rubles of 1.28 billion lei. Thus the pension deficit will be some 19 million lei. The pensions will get only indexed by 16%, that is up 58 lei). In 2007 the indexation was officially said to be 12%, but the inflation was twice as bigger in fact. Actually the pension in Transnistria will be raised on February 1, and May 1 – by 10 rubles (12 lei), on August 1– by 12 rubles (14 lei), and on November 1– with 14 rubles (16 lei). The monthly pension in the region is now 313 rubles (390 lei) and it accounts for only 38.6% of the subsistence minimum for a pensioner. According to preliminary calculation, in 2009 , some 134,578 people will receive pensions, as some 6,000 people are expected to die of natural causes.