Danish citizens still don't know whether their country will participate in the next soccer World Cup to be played in Russia in 2018 (the play-off against Ireland is scheduled for November). However, Denmark can make up for it with a landslide victory in another, much more important international competition: that of pension systems.
This is the result of the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index, the most comprehensive global survey of pension systems conducted by Mercer and the Australian Center for Financial Studies. In fact, for six consecutive editions, Copenhagen has firmly led the rankings, followed this year by the Netherlands and Australia.
The study took into consideration the social security systems of 30 countries, which account for about 60% of the world's population, and analyzed them using 40 parameters in order to judge their performance, their sustainability and their integrity. The index that emerges from the research considers the total amount of public pensions, supplementary and pension savings, also through insurance and managed savings instruments, as the "pension system".
Italy is improving, but that's not enough
The study places Italy in twentieth place, a slightly better result than last year. However, the analysis highlights the shortcomings of our pension system.
Italy, as well as Japan, Austria and France, emerge from the research as developed economies whose pension systems may not be able to provide adequate support in the old age of present and future active workers. While correctives have been undertaken, a broader reflection is needed. Research tells us that a diversified approach to the pension system is still lacking, in a medium-long term perspective the time has come to seek a new balance, in which a supplementary pension is increasingly necessary to guarantee the financial well-being of individuals advanced, in a social scenario that promises to be very different from the past.
“The aging of the population, the low birth rates, the ever longer life expectancy on the one hand, as well as the low levels of market returns and the pension savings deficit once again force Italy to reflect on the own pension system”, commented Marco Valerio Morelli, managing director of Mercer Italia.
From the point of view of the Italian situation, the research positively evaluates, as far as the adequacy chapter is concerned, the average level of pensions paid in Italy. And the governance of pension funds and pension funds is also being promoted. The real problem concerns sustainability, a field in which Italy gets 16,4 points against Denmark's 79,8 and a total average of 50,8). The reasons are probably linked to the limited participation in private pension plans (effective rate of 28% of the working-age population according to Covip, at the end of 2016). Hence a low level of investment in private pensions, equal to only 9% of GDP (a figure that is constantly increasing year after year, but far from the average of the most industrialized countries).
