Prague, March 14 (CTK) – The deficit of the Czech pension account amounted to 16.3 billion crowns in 2016, which was about a half of the 2015 sum and about one third of the 2012 and 2013 figures, according to the data the Czech Social Security Administration (CSSZ) has released.
Yet the expenditures have been exceeding the revenues from pension insurance in the Czech Republic with a population of 10.5 million for a long time.
Last year, people sent 372.9 billion crowns to the pension system, which was almost 21 billion crowns more than in 2015 when 352 billion crowns were collected.
The revenues have grown annually. They only decreased in 2009, after the economic crisis started. They amounted to 301.1 billion crowns.
The pension system had a surplus for the last time in 2008, when the boom peaked. The surplus was six billion crowns.
The biggest deficit, 49.7 billion crowns, was registered in 2013.
The revenues now grow thanks to a high employment rate and rising salaries.
However, the number of recipients of pensions is also rising as the population is aging.
The average old-age pension was 11,460 crowns in 2015.
Pensions are raised annually in January by one third of the rise in real wages and by inflation. If the increases are too low, the government may add up to 2.7 percent.
