President Nazarbayev urges to be cautious when raising pensions and social welfare payments

Measures taken to raise pensions and social allowances in the years to come will be more gradual and cautious, with due consideration of the global economic situation, Newskaz.ru quoted President Nazarbayev as saying today when speaking before the newly elected Majilis (lower chamber). “Kazakhstan is facing new challenges (…) Global economic uncertainty, possible new waves of the global crisis, possible drop of prices for major Kazakhstan’s export commodities may have a negative impact on the Kazakh economy (…) When it comes to the social security network, in the years to come we should be gradual and very cautious. We will be raising pensions and social welfare payments with due consideration of the inflation rate; earlier we raised the amounts by 20-30%; however nowadays we should take into account what is happening in the world [in terms of economy]”, Head of State said. “The funds that the nation has accumulated may be of use to pay pensions, salaries to public sector employees at the current level”, he said. At the same time President stressed that “should the economy grow and the overall global economic situation be favorable, extra earnings will be used to raise the wellbeing of the population at large (…) Despite all the hardships we will proceed along the path of modernization to secure a better life for the people of Kazakhstan.