Belarus hopes Russia will agree to simultaneously raise the retirement age in 2017
As Belarusian Prime Minister Andriy Kobyakov stated in an interview with RIA Novosti, Russia and Belarus discussed the topic of raising the retirement age. “In Minsk, we hope that Moscow will make a decision on the simultaneous increase of the retirement age in Russia and Belarus in 2017,” he said. “However, there are no agreements on this joint action,” he added.
"We expect that our partners will make the appropriate decisions. There was a discussion about this. However, there are no agreements that we will do something synchronous. Here, every country makes its own decisions," the Agency quoted him as saying.
The Belarusian Prime Minister also said that there is still no decision regarding the retirement age for those who live in Belarus, but previously worked in Russia. "In any case, we will have to sit down at the negotiating table and make the necessary additions to the agreements based on these realities," he said.
Kobyakov explained the necessity of raising the retirement age due to the difficult demographic situation and the rapid change in the ratio between pensioners and the citizens of working age. "The peak of growth is accounted for during 2017 - 2019. A situation will occur, where the number of new pensioners will exceed the number of people who will reach a working age by 1.5:1," he said.