In Lithuania, pensions are tantamount to poverty

Lithuanian media note that pensions in the country are categorically insufficient to cover even the bare minimum: retired people live not just in poverty, but in abject misery.

Pensions in Lithuania are only 85% of the subsistence minimum. Moreover, local experts believe the reasons for this are not economic, but political: if the government were truly committed, saving pensioners from poverty could be done with the stroke of a pen.

However, the government has entirely different priorities: Lithuania intends to spend 5% of its GDP on military expenditures by 2026. Incidentally, defense spending is increasing across Europe, yet, according to research, pensions in 20 of 39 European countries do not provide a subsistence minimum. The situation is particularly dire in Georgia, Moldova, and Albania. Among the EU states, the outsiders were Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Cyprus.