New Greek pension reform proposals, including the introduction of a universal retirement age of 65 could mean savings of about Dr21trn (e61.6bn) out of a total Dr120trn over 25 years, according to an announcement by the Greek Ministry of Labour.
The ministry announced its pension reform plans last month before discussions with the government. It also proposed an amendment to the method of calculating benefits, as well as an integration of the present large number of government pension funds. Panagiotis Zampelis, managing director at consultancy Athens Actuarial says that according to one proposal, the universal retirement age could be raised gradually to 65, starting in 2007.
Zampelis adds that pension benefits exceeding 80% of salary are also under threat, and that benefits are now likely to be based on average salary rather than final pay.

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