Country Report – Pensions in Central & Eastern Europe (January 2023)

Poland’s PPK auto-enrolment system marks its fourth anniversary this month. It can hardly be described as a complete success given the participation rate is stuck at just over a third of the working population. Some initial projections foresaw a 70% takeup level. But with assets approaching €2.5bn and rapidly growing, there is a sense that this is a relatively good outcome for a country with no tradition of independent retirement saving and where the previous second pillar system was radically overhauled just a few years ago, leaving ordinary citizens confused and mistrustful. In Kosovo, the pension system created by the United Nations some 20 years ago is now halfway to its planned maturity and is a good example of what an ambitious funded pension system can achieve at scale in a small country. We also assess the situations in Romania, the Baltic countries and Bulgaria.