Strengthening the Serbian statistical system by upgrading methodologies and standards and by appliance of good practice – Development of pension expenditure projections as a share of GDP

Head of Project: Jovan Zubović, PhD 
Ordered by: GOPA Consultants, Bad Homburg, Germany
Duration: 2017

An important sustainable development indicator (SDI) relates to pension expenditure projections as a percentage of GDP. (SDI Indicator No. 69). In the EU context, the indicator includes gross public pensions (ie before taxation and compulsory social security contributions) as a percentage of GDP. It is the sum of different categories of pensions, where some (eg disability pension) can be paid to persons who have not reached the standard retirement age. The projections are made on the basis of Eurostat's population projection - EUROPOP2010 - and jointly agreed basic economic assumptions prepared by the European Commission (DG ECFIN) and the Committee for Economic Policy (Working Group on Aging). The Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia requested that the competent authority, in cooperation with the Statistical Office, undertake the task of initiating the development of the methodology and calculating the indicator. The choice fell on the Institute of Economic Sciences, for which subcontracting is proposed in order to initiate the production of pension expenditure projections in Serbia.