Pension expenditure projections (baseline scenario)

The pension expenditure indicator includes gross public pensions (i.e. before taxes and compulsory social security contributions) as a percentage of GDP. It is the sum of different categories of pension benefits, some of which (for example, disability  pensions) may be paid to people who have not reached the standard retiring age. The projections are made on the basis of Eurostat's population projection - EUROPOP2010 - and commonly agreed underlying economic assumptions that have been prepared by the European Commission (DG ECFIN) and the Economic Policy Committee (Ageing Working Group).