GOVERNMENTS IN developed countries are being urged to cut back on their pension and welfare benefits as ageing populations push public spending to grow at double the rate previously forecast to 2050, according to an international research centre.
Public retirement spending may eat up an extra 12 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), leaping from 11 to 23 per cent, by 2050 - nearly double the rate of government projections, a report conducted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) based in Washington found.
The problem is especially acute in some European countries and is spreading to East Asia rapidly due to a significant decline in its birth rate.
Entitled Global Retirement Crisis: The Threat to World Stability and What to Do about It, the report is a collaboration with Citigroup Asset Management.
It said that in Greece and Spain, the total public pension and health spending was expected to rise to 44 per cent and 37 per cent of GDP by 2050 respectively.
In France, health and pension payouts are to rise by 15 per cent of GDP in that time.