Thailand: Number of retirees to accelerate over next 2 decades
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Oct 2017
Thailand
Thailand’s retirees will make up 20% of the population over the next decade and jump to one-third by 2035, said the Capital Market Academy (CMA).
Those aged over 60 stood at 11 million or 16% of the total population last year, reported The Bangkok Post, citing Ms Pornanong Budsaratragoon, CMA’s president of academic affairs.
“By 2025, those over 60 years old will account for more than 20% of the total population, after which Thailand will enter the level of super-aged society, where retirees make up 30% of the population by the year 2035,” she said.
To prepare for this growing silver population, the government has designed four social welfare programmes for retirees, said Varothai Kosolpisitkul, deputy director-general of the Finance Ministry’s Fiscal Policy Office and a member of the acting committee of the National Savings Fund (NSF). These include healthcare benefits, a reverse mortgage scheme for retirees who have no relative to take care of them and want to finance their houses for monthly revenue, providing jobs for the elderly, and retirement income planning.
The CMA plans to launch a mutual fund which will provide a monthly income upon retirement. The fund should help with daily spending and health insurance coverage. A