For several weeks now, the COR report has been picked up by the different political camps to justify their support or opposition to the executive pension reform. The different scenarios developed in this document describe a system that will present a deficit in the more or less long term, without threatening its sustainability.
During a hearing last Thursday before the Finance Commission of the National Assembly, the president of the COR, Pierre-Louis Bras, wanted to clarify these scenarios and put an end to the political revulsions.
“Pension spending does not slide”
It is especially on the issue of spending that the debate is divided: “Pension spending is generally stabilized and even in the very long term,” he declared. “At worst, they go up without going up very significantly.”
Thus, according to him, “pension spending does not drift”, rather it would be incompatible “with the objectives of economic policy and public finances of the Government”.
After a deficit of 13,000 million euros in 2020, the pension system has returned to green, this time registering a surplus of 900 million euros in 2021 and even 3,200 million in 2022. A notable improvement mainly due to income growth during the strong post-Covid business recovery. But this should only be temporary.
The growth registered by our country is also one of the main factors taken into account in the balance of our system. In the 2028-2032 period, marked, according to the COR, by weak growth and a rebound in unemployment (we will return to this), the deterioration of the balance between pension income and expenditure would continue, with a widening of the deficit driven this time by the basic plans of the private sector.
Two schools are opposed to reducing the budget deficit: an increase in contributions or a postponement of the legal retirement age. The Executive has maintained its will to favor the second solution.
Source: BFM TV
