Pensions are one of the most important social and political issues in Georgia. Moreover, it is the only source of income for hundreds of thousands of people, so its volume is often an integral part of election promises and political discourse.
In 2020, amendments were made to the law, which provides an automatic mechanism for reviewing pensions each year. As a result, pensions of people less than 70 years old will increase by a minimum 20 GEL and reach 240 GEL, while for people above 70 years it will increase by a minimum of 25 GEL and reach 275 GEL from 2021.
If we compare the basic pension of Georgia with other countries in the region, the pension in Georgia is quite close to the average pension in Ukraine, which is 72 USD. Pensions are higher in Armenia and it totlas to about 86 USD. The average pension in Azerbaijan is 176 USD; in Russia – 218 USD.
According to the draft budget for 2021, a total of 2.6 billion GEL should be spent on the population pension. This is 370 million GEL more comparing to 2020.
Along with the budget increase, it is interesting to look at how the purchasing power of the pension is changed. If we compare the amount of the basic pension in USD, we will see that the pension in USD had been the highest in 2013. A pension of 150 GEL equaled 86 USD. In 2020, a pension of 220 GEL only amounts to 66.8 USD. If the national currency is not devaluated in 2021, a pension of 240 GEL will be equivalent to 72.9 USD, which is still less than the 2013 pension.
