According to the Croatian Pension Insurance Agency (HZMO), 2010 saw a significant rise in the number of early retirements in Croatia, when out of 60,669 people who went into retirement, 21,140 were early pensioners.
For instance, in 2009, as many as 12,015 Croatians went into early retirement, in 2008 there were 7,920 early retirements and in 2007 - 6,089 early retirements.
In a bid to reduce the early-age retirement, Croatia adopted new measures with higher penalties which went into force in November 2010.
Thus, pension will be reduced by 0.35 percent instead of the previous 0.15 percent for each month which a retiree needs for full-age retirement.
At the end of 2010, a total of 1.2 million Croatians were pension recipients, with a dependency ratio of 1 to 1.23, which means that for every pensioner there are 1.23 workers. At the end of 2009, the ratio was a little more favourable (1 to 1.30).
The average monthly pension totalled HRK 2,164, accounting for 38.76 percent of the average salary earned in November 2010.
The average full-age pension came to HRK 2,380, and the average disability support pension was HRK 1,929 and the average family pension income totalled HRK 1,853 at the end of 2010.
The average military pension was HRK 3,412 and the average pension income paid to Croatian war veterans totalled HRK 5,284 at the end of 2010.
Croatia needs some three billion kuna for the monthly payment of pension benefits.
This year Croatia should ensure HRK 35 billion for the payment of pensions, and HRK 19.3 billion will be collected from pension contributions paid on salaries, while the remaining 16.3 billion are to be covered from the state budget.
