Belgium to raise retirement age to 67

Belgium is the latest European country to mandate raising the age of retirement.

Negotiators working on a deal to establish the new government coalition announced on Tuesday an agreement to raise the statutory retirement age to 66 in 2025 and to 67 in 2030. Early retirement will now only be possible at 63 from 2016. Some transitional arrangements for people about to reach the current retirement age have also been agreed upon.

The current statutory retirement age will remain at 64 in 2014.

The justification for raising the age of retirement was that life expectancy has increased.

After months of negotiations, which began following elections in May, the Belgian political parties hoped to be able to complete a new government deal by Wednesday.

Xinhua

(China Daily 10/09/2014 page10)