Romanians Should Save EUR3,700 Annually To Have Decent Retirement Income

According to Popescu, data regarding pensions were the outcome of a research conducted by Aviva and consultancy company Deloitte in Europe. He stressed that Romania’s total pension deficit reaches EUR40.2 billion, or over one third of the country’s gross domestic product, and added that, at an European level, the annual pension deficit hits EUR1,900 billion.

Popescu said the pension deficit is the difference between income necessary to have a decent living standard after retirement and the money people currently expect to receive when they retire.

The analysis revealed that the pension deficit reaches EUR68.8 billion in Poland, EUR25.3 billion in the Czech Republic and EUR9.5 billion in Hungary.

Popescu pointed out that Romanian retirees will face an extremely low standard of living unless immediate measures are taken.

„Eleven million Romanians will retire in the next 40 years, more than half of the country’s current population and almost three times more than the current number of employees, namely 4.68 million,” Popescu said.

According to the survey, Romanians aged between 20 and 30 should save EUR1,300 annually to reduce financial deficit and those aged between 30 and 40 should save EUR1,700.

Popescu stressed that Romanians aged 50, who will retire in the next 15 years, should save EUR4.800 annually to make sure they will have a financially decent retirement.

The research reads that, people who will enjoy no extra income after retirement will have either to postpone retirement to a later date or deal with a lower standard of living.

Popescu said data regarding Romania were based upon estimations that Romanian employees’ wages will reach about 80% of the EU average salary in in 2023.

Aviva Asigurari de Viata has a share capital of 165.62 million lei (EUR1=RON4.2670), owned by UK-based Aviva International Holding Limited with 99.9998% and CGU Romania Holdings SRL with 0.0002%.

British Group Aviva also owns in Romania company Aviva Pensii Private (mandatory private pensions).