Uzbekistan‘s pension system requires reforming to ensure its sustainability in the medium term and to provide an adequate level of pensions, the mission of the International Monetary Fund said in the conclusion following its visit to the country.

According to the IMF, this can be achieved through:

• gradually raising the retirement age (currently 60 years for men and 55 years for women);
• gradually increasing the standard rate of pension contributions and abolishing soft rates for certain types of organizations;
• calculating pensions based on the average salary for the entire working career;
• introducing automatic indexation of pensions based on price changes.

Any social pensions aimed at reducing poverty in old age should be strictly targeted - based on an assessment of needs, financed from the budget and managed in conjunction with other social support measures to avoid duplication.

According to the fund, a seminar on pension reform took place held in Uzbekistan in December 2024, during which the preparation of a conceptual document began. It is planned to present it to the country's president by September 2025 (initially planned before March 1, 2025).

As of June 1, the number of pension recipients in Uzbekistan stands at 4.19 million people, of which 3.47 million are old-age pensioners, 476.2 thousand are the disabled, and 248.9 thousand are survivors.

The average pension rate is 1.43 million soums, in Tashkent - 1.96 million soums.

In April 2023, the World Bank in its report "Improving the Efficiency of Public Expenditures on Human Capital and Water Infrastructure in Uzbekistan" proposed that the country raise the retirement age.

The report noted that it was advisable to give pre-retirement workers time to adapt from the moment the decision is made until the start of its implementation, so that they can adjust their life plans.

“The best option would be to make a decision within the framework of the National Social Protection Strategy for 2021-2030, providing for a slow (3-4 months per year) increase in the retirement age to 65 years, starting in 2025. In the future, this will gradually shift the boundary between working and retirement age, reducing the pressure of demographic changes. It is very important for the country to do this before the potential for demographic growth of the labor force is exhausted (mid-2040s), since this is already a matter of national competitiveness,” the WB noted.

The neighboring countries have significantly higher birth rates and retirement ages, which “gives them some advantages.” In the long term, raising the retirement age will help ensure the financial sustainability of the pension system and public finances, the World Bank noted.

In July last year, the Agency for Strategic Reforms reported that pension coverage in Uzbekistan was only 38%, due to high informal employment. With high contribution rates (12-25%), payments were average compared to other countries. The agency then studied how to make the country's pension system adequate.