Social Protection Fund may require additional budgetary funds to avoid deficit by late 2016

In H1 2016, the Social Protection Fund’s deficit totalled BYR 780 billion due to insufficient payments to the Fund. Payments to the Fund reduced due to mass lay-offs – in H1 2016 more than 80 500 people were fired. Such negative trends on the labour market are likely to persist, which may lead to the Fund’s budget deficit by late 2016. Indexation of pensions will be insignificant, the Fund may face austerity measures and the list of documents required for obtaining different social benefits may be extended in order to reduce recipients of the state aid. The Fund’s budget deficit may exceed BYR 1 trillion by the year-end and is likely to be recovered from the Fund’s own savings or from the state budget.