PNL’s Orban: This year PSD cut off pensions; these should have risen by 8pct

National Liberal Party (PNL) chairman Ludovic Orban said on Wednesday evening that this year " PSD [the Social Democratic Party, major at rule, ed.n.] cut off pensions", saying these should have risen by 8pct as of 1 January, according to Agerpres.

"This year, PSD cut off pensions, because if it had applied the pension increase formula that existed and exists in the legislation, pensions would normally have risen by 8pct as of 1 January. That meant 96 or 8pct on the 12-month pension point, instead they have increased their pension point by 10pct on 1 July, and for the first quarter, for the first time in many years, the average pension decreased in Romania, related to the last quarter of 2017", Orban told B1 TV.

He also pointed out that the inflation rate grew and pensioners feel this the most.

"The inflation rate was 5.4pct; in fact, this applies to all products and services at the level of the economy, but if you analyze the price increase on what is called the daily basket, especially the pensioner's daily basket, the inflation rate is estimated at 9pct in terms of food, medicines, electricity and gas," Orban said.