“Yes, we fully protect our pensioners against inflation”: this quote from Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, earned him the fire of criticism on Twitter. After the cancellation on the night of July 26 to 27 of the vote on a revaluation of 500 million euros for retirement pensions, a lower revaluation was voted in Parliament: 1.1% in January and 4.4 % retroactively since July. According to Bruno Le Maire, these two values add up, and thus cover the estimate of 5% inflation made by the government.
But it is quite different. On BFM Business, the economist Pierre Kupferman recalls that supplementary pensions have still not been valued, the social partners traditionally waiting for November. “But above all, when you pull out your calculator, you realize that the increases granted by the government will not compensate for inflation over the year. Thus, for a retiree who would earn 1,000 euros in old-age insurance per month in 2021, the amount of the pension will rise to 1,011 euros per month in 2022 from January to June, and to 1,051.45 euros per month from July to December.
Between December 2021 and July 2022, the amount of the pension will have increased by 5.144%, but this is not the case over the whole year. Because with a total of 12,375 euros over the year, the revaluation increases to 3.1%. An amount lower than inflation, contrary to what Bruno Le Maire promised, and a shortfall of 2.4 points of purchasing power for retirees. “If the government had wanted the account to be there, it would have had to increase pensions by 8.7% in July. The 4% catch-up is insufficient,” economist Maxime Combes told Franceinfo. Be that as it may, the amount chosen is below the estimates of INSEE, which predicts that prices will rise by 5.5% on average over the whole of 2022. According to its latest estimates, published on July 29, inflation increased by 0.3 points compared to June to reach 6.1% year on year; it should reach 6.8% by the end of the year.
