Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its latest statement following a mission to Uzbekistan, emphasized the urgent need to reform the country’s national pension system.

According to the IMF’s experts, the current model is not financially sustainable in the medium term and cannot provide elderly citizens with an adequate standard of living.

The report highlights several core measures necessary to ensure the long-term viability of the pension system:

Gradually increasing the retirement age from the current 60 for men and 55 for women to a more sustainable level.

Phasing out preferential contribution rates and progressively raising the standard pension contribution rate.

Switching to a pension calculation based on average earnings over an individual’s entire career, rather than selected peak years.

Introducing automatic pension indexation linked to inflation and changes in the cost of living to protect retirees’ incomes from erosion.

Additionally, the IMF recommends restructuring social pensions on a strictly targeted basis, using means-testing within the framework of state-funded social support systems. This approach aims to eliminate overlapping payments and enhance the precision of assistance to those in genuine need.

The IMF’s findings underscore the necessity for Uzbekistan to adopt structural reforms promptly in order to strengthen the equity and effectiveness of its pension system in the face of demographic and fiscal pressures.