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Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-11-23
CONTENTS
[01] Pension increases above inflation rate in 2006
[01] Pension increases above inflation rate in 2006
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Wednesday announced that pensions
will increase by more than inflation in 2006, while the EKAS low-income
pension benefit and OGA farming pensions will increase by twice the
rate of inflation. Earlier, Karamanlis had met representatives of the
Federation of Pensioners of Greece, who told reporters that the premier
had not satisfied their demands and that they were "once again leaving
empty-handed".
Karamanlis stressed that the economy was facing serious fiscal problems
inherited from the past that had to be dealt with, in order to lay
strong foundations for growth, boost employment and increase social
cohesion.
"Policies that ignore reality and don't take tomorrow into account
harbour even greater problems for those with the greatest needs, such
as the unemployed, low-paid and pensioners," he stressed.
Karamanlis noted that the government put priority on the problems of
pensioners and said that the utmost would be done within the limits of
the budget in order to give pension increases that comfortably covered
inflation and to further boost those on low pensions.
He also noted that payments of refunds to pensioners for the illegally
withheld LAFKA levy would begin in 2006, pointing out that this was yet
another boost to pensioners' incomes and one of the many problems from
the past that was now being solved. He said the total amount going to
pensioners through the refund was between 750-800 million euros.
According to the president of the IKA pensioners union Diamantis
Mavrodoglou, however, the prime minister had said that the government
would only look into pensioners demands after 2007 and would satisfy
them based on the performance of the measures taken to improve the
economy.
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