In the Report of the Staff of the International Monetary Fund accompanying the agreement with Argentina, dated March 25, it is said that the country marami naman retirees in relation to the total number of seniors and the pension system pay a very high salary wage -related compared to OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, which, among others, include the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain. He then suggests reducing those two indicators key to the pension system.

According to the IMF, Argentina’s high pension spending is due to “wide scope and generous benefits.” Thus, this indicates that the number of social security beneficiaries represents 140% of the population over 65 years, when in OECD countries it is 109% and it is associated with early retirement age and in moratorium.

In addition, it maintains that replacement rates (the average amount of pensions as a percentage of active wages) exceed 90% compared to 58% in OECD countries, due to the presence of special regimesincluding provincial levels.

The IMF Report does not explain how you get the percentages referred to Argentina, advising raise the retirement agereduce the number of beneficiaries and retirement assets, and remove moratoriums.

However, from Social Security numbers and from what specialists think, IMF values ​​will be strongly overestimated.

According to Social Security specialist, Rafael Rofman, director of CIPECC (Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth) “close to 95% of those over 65 receive pension benefits and, on average, pensions under the general regime are 65% of the average wage and twice the minimum wage. Maybe for some methodological confusion or of communication with the Argentine authoritiesthe IMF report shows inaccurate data on these dimensions ”.

In December 2021, the average credit of pensioners with 30 or more years of contributions is $ 66,607 compared to the average formal salary of $ 102,589. This equates to 65%, far from the more than 90% indicated by the IMF on page 41 of its report.

Retirees with a moratorium had an average credit of $ 30,781. Meanwhile, widowhood pensions are $ 41,954 in the case of retirements with contributions or $ 30,082 if it is a retirement moratorium.

On the other hand, non-contributory pensions are 70% of the minimum amount and PUAM (Pension for the Elderly) is 80% of the minimum amount. Without those programs, poverty and hardship in the elderly will be higher.

General regime retirees and pensioners, including non-contributing pensions, including PUAM are comprised to 97% of the total beneficiaries of the system. The high pension corresponds only to the Judiciary and diplomats who have the salary is also high.

In addition, in Argentina women retire from the age of 60, thus comparing the number of retirees with a population over 65 years will be overrated because the relationship made by the IMF will not be homogeneous.

Here it is added that, between September 2017 and December 2019, salaries and other social benefits lost 19.5% in relation to inflation and since then, even the bonuses not included in salaries, the recipients of minimum pension or less. they do not match the price increaseand others had further deterioration accumulated between 2018 and 2019 of up to more than 10 points.

NE