
Pension burden to double debt ratio
ECB publishes study on consequences of reform reversals.
Dr. S-W – 05/2020
The
European Central Bank has published a study compiled by several authors that
examines the long-term costs of reversing recent pension reforms. The authors make
use of the 2018 Ageing Report projections and develop them further using their
own modelling. This was done using only two countries cases, namely Germany and
Slovakia.
Germany’s ‘double
threshold’ measure comes under particular criticism from the authors. Under
this reform, the benefit ratio should not fall below 48% and the contribution
rate should not rise above 20% until 2025. Germany is considering extending the
‘double threshold’ cap until 2040 and so the study uses this year to make its
projections. The study also mentions that Germany is toying with the idea of
introducing a basic pension, although it would appear that this has not been
included in the extended projections. In Slovakia, the government had originally
decided to automatically link statutory retirement age to life expectancy – a
decision it has now reversed. As a result, retirement age will be gradually
raised to 64 years by 2045, at which point it will be capped. In addition, there
have been generous adjustments to the minimum pension.
The study
also mentions some other examples. Spain had implemented a ‘sustainability
factor’ which links the replacement rate to life expectancy. This has now been
postponed until 2023. Italy has partially reversed earlier reforms by
temporarily facilitating early retirement. Greece has been forced by court
decisions to reverse pension cuts. Even in the Netherlands, there are discussions
about loosening the agreed link between retirement age and life expectancy.
However, in this case it should be noted that life expectancy there is not developing
as well as originally forecast. In all these cases, a significant increase in public
debt would be inevitable.
The modelling
in the study took the following steps:
- A
baseline scenario was generated which projected public debt by 2070 if the
legal situation remains as it is before the reversal of cost-cutting pension
reforms.
- It
then looked at how retirement age, contribution rates or benefits ratios would
have to be adjusted to offset the increase in debt.
- This
is then repeated under the assumption of a reform reversal scenario.
The
results are striking. In Germany, the estimated increase in the public
debt-to-GDP ratio under the baseline scenario would be 100 percentage points by
2070, i.e. from around 60% today to 160%. The effective (not the statutory!)
retirement age would be 65.5 years. Slovakia would not be much better off. Its
debt-to-GDP ratio would also rise by about 100 percentage points. In order to offset
this effect, that is, to keep the debt ratio constant, the effective retirement
age in Germany would have to increase by 3.5 years to 69 years by 2070.
Slovakia
would have to increase it even more by 4.5 years. Alternatively, the
replacement ratio could of course be reduced. Germany would have to more than
halve its benefit ratio by reducing it 26 percentage points and Slovakia would
have to reduce theirs by 21 percentage points. The last alternative to
restoring the financial balance is to raise the contribution rate – by 11
percentage points in Germany and by 7 percentage points in Slovakia. A combination of measures is of course also possible.
Although
these projections are far from rosy, reform reversals initiated after
completion of the 2018 Ageing Report could result in an even worse fiscal
situation. It is assumed that Germany will extend its ‘double threshold’ until
2040. Under this scenario, the public debt-to-GDP ratio would rise by a further
60 percentage points compared with the baseline scenario. In the case of
Slovakia, the increase would be a further 50 percentage points, unless the benefit
ratio is reduced by 29 percentage points.
Although
only Germany and Slovakia were studied, the authors claim that their framework
can be applied to other countries.
The study
is called ‘A framework for assessing the costs of pension reform reversals’ and
was published as Working Paper No 2396/April 2020 of the European Central Bank.
The study can be read here.