The demographic aspect exerts enormous pressure on the pension system of the Republic of Moldova. The people, after working for many years, retire in the hope that the pension will ensure decent living conditions, but it does not happen so. The demographic pressure is one of the reasons for such a situation. There are many older people, but there are not many young people who would work to offer a decent pension, said economic policy expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul” Veaceslav Ioniță, IPN reports.
According to the economist, the active aging of Moldova’s population takes place due to a number of reasons, including the fact that life expectancy increases, while the birth rate declines. The current birth rate is the lowest in the country’s history, with the natural growth being negative.
The expert said the pressure on the pension system is enormous. “In 1990, there were 1.510 million people who worked for 580,000 pensioners. The ratio was almost 3 employees to one pensioner. A dramatic decline in the number of employees followed and in 2000 there were 697,000 employees and 518,000 pensioners. Currently, there are about 600,000 employees and 525,000 pensioners.
“As a result, today we have 1.2 employees to 1 pensioner. However, besides the old-age pensioners, there are also other groups of pensioners. This way, the pressure on the employees of the real sector of the economy is even bigger,” stated Veaceslav Ioniță.
He noted that the number of persons who will join the labor force in 2023 is expected to be lower than of those who will retire. “We are practically unable to maintain the current pension system with own resources. On the one hand, fewer children are being born. On the other hand, young people leave the country,” noted the expert.
According to Veaceslav Ioniță, the social protection system is now maintained with funds designed to develop the country. If measures to keep the population at home are not identified, at a time when it is very hard to persuade those who left to return home, Moldova risks becoming unable to maintain the social protection system. “The migration of the population creates many problems and the incapacity to develop the country is one of them as we have to use the available money to pay pensions and other types of social welfare,” concluded the expert.
