Pension Reforms in Mauritius: Fair and Fast—Balancing Social Protection and Fiscal Sustainability
IMF Working Papers, June 19, 2015
Source details
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- Pension Reforms in Mauritius: Fair and Fast—Balancing Social Protection and Fiscal Sustainability
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Mauricio Soto, Vimal V Thakoor, Martin Petri
- Published: June 19, 2015
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513568331.001
Summary findings
- Despite important past reforms, the ageing population of Mauritius threatens the sustainability of its pension system.
- The paper examines how pension spending might increase without reforms and discusses reform options.
- Key findings:
- Unifying the retirement age and indexing it to life expectancy would contribute most significantly to secure and sustainable pensions.
- The poverty reducing objective of the universal pension can be improved by better targeting.
- The old age protection objective of the National Pension Fund could be strengthened by increasing contribution and replacement rates.
- Implementing changes faster should result in less drastic future changes and fairer outcomes.
Policy recommendations and reform options
- Unify the retirement age and index retirement age to life expectancy to enhance sustainability and security of pensions.
- Improve targeting of the universal pension to better achieve the poverty reducing objective.
- Increase contribution rates and replacement rates for the National Pension Fund to strengthen old age protection.
- Implement reforms faster to reduce the magnitude of future adjustments and improve fairness of outcomes.
Analytical focus and scope
- The paper analyzes projected increases in pension spending under a no-reform scenario and evaluates policy options to contain fiscal pressures while preserving social protection objectives.
- Subject tags included in the source: Aging, Civil service, Expenditure, Labor, Pension spending, Pensions, Population and demographics, Retirement.
- Keywords provided in the source: ageing, Aging, BRP beneficiary, BRP benefit, BRP expenditure, BRP spending, Civil service, CSDB pension expenditure, fiscal policy, investment strategy, Mauritius, NPF contribution, pension reform, Pension spending, pensions, present discounted value, Retirement, WP.