Economic Insight - 1st March 2010
Start date: 01/03/2010
Adverse demographic trends in Europe: ageing populations and relative economic decline In the current debate about a possible German bail-out for Greece, one factor is increasingly clear. And that is the extreme electoral unpopularity in Germany of such a generous show of EU solidarity to ameliorate Greece’s problems. Part of the unpopularity relates to the unpalatable idea of bailing out the profligate and dishonest Greek government. But it is also about the disparity of Greek and German retirement pension rules. Even the prospect that Greece was planning to raise the legal retirement age from 61 to 63 as part of its austerity package seems to have been like a red rag to a bull in Germany, which recently raised its legal age from 65 to 67.