Slowing down of pensions growth takes effect in Czech Republic

Prague, Sept 12 (CTK) - Czech President Vaclav Klaus Wednesday signed a legislation that slows down the growth of pensions in next three years, Klaus's spokesman Radim Ochvat has said.

Klaus thus declined to meet the demands of the opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) and the Council of the Elderly in the Czech Republic that he should veto the amendment to the pension insurance law in order to allow for the third debate on it in the Chamber of Deputies.

Last week, the Chamber of Deputies passed the bill again, overriding a veto by the left-dominated Senate.

Under the amendment, pensions will be indexed over a period of three years starting in 2013 with one third of the growth in prices and one third of the rise in real wages.

Now the pensions are indexed by the whole rate of inflation.

The amendment is a part of the government-sponsored austerity measures aimed to decrease budget deficits.

The state should save some 48 billion crowns over the three years.

The average pension that is now about 10,550 crowns will increase by about 156 crowns instead of the originally expected 428 crowns.