Page 32 - Ekonomija i Biznis_noemvri 2016.indd

ECONOMY
ing power of the assets will be provided.
For the entire period of the operation,
ending with 30.06.2016, the real yield of
the compulsory pension funds, reduced
at an annual level, is 3.4%, and of the vol- despite of the tax stimulations in a form
untary pension funds it is 4.2%, which in-
dicates that the private management of
the funds positively contributes for the
creation of a real value for their mem-
bers. In this regard, one should point out
that the pensions from the private funds
will be expressed and paid in denars. Any
domestic “monetary surprise”, although
it would have an initial position reflec-
tion on the nominal yield of the funds
due to the revaluation of the funds in-
vested abroad, still through the effects
of inflation, it would erode the real yield, the employees, which might influence on
causing a destruction of the purchasing
power of the future pensions. Therefore,
when an expert starts to preach about
how devaluation “would have a positive
reflection on our export and the econom-
ic growth”, it would be useful to ask this
expert about the effects this would have
on the real value of the assets in the pen-
sion funds, and what would happen with
the purchasing power of these assets,
that is, with the pensions for the current
employees.
For more comprehensive understand-
ing of the importance of the established
system of the private pension insurance,
apart from the growth of assets in funds
and the realized yield, it is also necessary rate in the economy and an increase of
to consider some other aspects such as
the coverage of the population with the
multi-pillar pension system and the real-
ized yield from investment of funds. The
number of members in the second pillar
is more than 400 thousand persons cov-
ering approximately 42% of the active
population in Macedonia, which can be
assessed as relatively satisfactory level
of inclusion of the population in the sec-
ond pillar of the pension system. At the
same time, the average age of members
in the compulsory social fund is approxi-
mately 32 years and as the demographic
transition of the workforce will prog-
ress, the coverage will increase. On the
other hand, the modest membership in
the third voluntary pillar of slightly more
32 November 2016
than 22 thousand persons actually shows
that among the Macedonian citizens
there is an absence of significant interest
in membership in the third pillar, even
of a return of personal income tax. The
causes for the poor participation of the
population in the third pillar are numer-
ous and complex, however it seems that
what is of key influence is the general
level of economic development in this
country, the standard of living of the
population and the developments in the
labour market. Another influence is the
level of financial (non)education and ab-
sence of a sound social dialogue, that is,
partnership between the employers and
an increase of the number and the mem-
bership in professional pension schemes.
In this regard, if the country is interested
in greater development of voluntary pen-
sion insurance, thereby in reduction of
social risks which arise from the aging
of the population, instead of the continu-
ous increase of the current budget trans-
fers towards the Pension and Disability
Insurance Fund of Macedonia, the coun-
try might approach towards establish-
ment of occupational pension schemes
with membership of all employees in the
state sector, even with a symbolic yield
rate. From economic point of view, this
would have a positive impact because
it would reflect on the higher savings
the financial property of the population.
Furthermore, the private sector would
be encouraged to establish several pen-
sion schemes or to expand the scope of
the employees who are members in the
existing schemes, especially if it wants to
attract staff with a better quality.
The last published data of MAPAS
about the structure of members of com-
pulsory funds according to the amount
of their monthly net-salary show that
in 2013, more than 70% of the members
of the compulsory funds received salary
lower than 18,000 denars, which is lower
than the average salary in this country.
Considering that for the private pension
insurance people say, you get what you