Komsomolskaya Pravda: Putin: “Retirement pensions to increase as of Feb. 1“
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced at a government meeting yesterday that retirement pensions will increase by 7% as of February 1.
"We were supposed to index pensions at 6.1%," he said. "But my proposal is to raise them by 7% as of February 1." There are sufficient budget funds to do so, he stressed.
The Budget Code foresees increasing such payments at a pace no less than the official 6.1% inflation rate. An additional 1.3 billion rubles in budget funds will be required to hit the 7% mark. As a result, the average retirement pension will reach 9,300 roubles.
However, this is not the final rise for the year. As of April 1, social pensions will grow by 14.1% to an average of 5,700 roubles.
Putin also noted that pensions for retired servicemen were increased by roughly 60% on January 1. This has produced a 28% gap between military and civil pensions, although the figure was no more than 25% during the Soviet Union. Putin also promised that the government will gradually address the existing disbalance.
Andrei Zaitsev
