During the euro-zone sovereign crisis, Italy – in line with other stressed countries – introduced a major pension overhaul, known as the ‘Fornero reform’, aimed at tackling the revealed unsustainability of the system.

This reform has been – and continues to be – at the centre of a long-lasting political debate in the country. This debate predominantly focuses on the short-term aspects of the system, and neglects relevant longer-term fundamentals.

With this blog post, we aim to shed light on Italy’s long-term economic and demographic trends and their implications for pension spending.

As an overall trend, total pension expenditure in Italy stood at 16.5% of GDP in 2015 – ranking second-highest in the EU28, after Greece  (… read more click here)

BY: FRANCESCO CHIACCHIO AND SIMONE TAGLIAPIETRA

BRUEGEL ©2018