Ukrainian Vice PM: Life expectancy should be increased before raising retirement age

It is inappropriate to talk about raising the retirement age in Ukraine up to the European standards as the life expectancy in our country is much lower than in the EU.

Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Pavlo Rozenko said this on the air of Espreso.TV.

"It is inappropriate now to talk about raising the retirement age... The issue of age has been lifted in the IMF memorandum... The experts say that Ukrainians retire four years earlier than Europeans. The retirement age in Ukraine is 58 years old, while in Europe it is 62 years old. However, let’s face the truth: the life expectancy of Ukrainians is 10 years lower than in the EU. It is inappropriate to talk about raising the retirement age now. The increase in life expectancy is a challenge and we must foster our efforts to settle this issue," Rozenko said.

Earlier, Head of the IMF Mission to Ukraine Ron van Rooden stated in an article for the Economic Truth Ukrainian online newspaper that Ukraine's pension system did not meet the challenges of today’s world and required urgent reform.

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